


Glass Hearts, Paper Souls

by beyondthesea



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: F/F, series finale spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-03
Updated: 2015-04-11
Packaged: 2018-03-05 04:43:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 38,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3106415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beyondthesea/pseuds/beyondthesea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While in the spirit world, Korra and Asami uncover some information that could be the key to reuniting Korra with her past lives. Meanwhile, as the situation in the Earth Kingdom approaches the Boiling Point, Su and Prince Wu are forced to seek help from an unlikely source.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Free Korra

**Author's Note:**

> I'm planning on updating every Saturday. Cross-posted to ff.net. May eventually go to an M rating.

"Umm, does it rain in the spirit world?"

When Korra looks up, Asami is holding up black rain jacket that looks like it probably cost more than Naga's custom-made saddle and looking at her in confusion.

"Never when I've been there," Korra shrugs. "I know the weather can change based on your emotions—or my emotions at least—but I've never seen it rain. We don't really have room for a lot of extra stuff anyway. Just pack a couple changes of clothes."

"But what if we get caught in a blizzard?" Asami asks, pulling a heavy, fur-lined coat out of her overflowing bag.

Korra raises an eyebrow. "Did you have that when we were in the South Pole?" she asks. "I don't remember it. You definitely won't need anything heavier than you wore at the South Pole."

"It's new," Asami answers stiffly.

"Well, you're going to have to carry everything you bring on your back," Korra replies. "Pack what you want. I'm just going to wing it."

"You're going to die out there," the engineer sighs, shaking her head.

"Somehow, I doubt you'd let that happen."

Asami laughs, and then Korra laughs, but their laughter lapses into a silence that would have been comfortable before Korra left three years ago but is not anymore. They parts as best friends, and their absence triggered something more, something that Korra was not aware of until she found herself alone in South Pole wanting to talk only to Asami, finding even her parents poor substitutes.

"Okay, okay." Asami dumps her bag out on the bed and begins to shuffle through its contents. "Only the necessities." She looks up at her companion. "Don't you need to pack too?"

"Already done," Korra answers smugly, tossing a small backpack onto the bed.

"When did you do that?" Asami narrows her eyes. "You got here five minutes after we left the party."

"Right," Korra shrugs. "A minute and a half to get to my room, two minutes to change, a minute to get here. That leaves…" she pauses to do the math, "thirty seconds to pack."

"Let me guess." Asami begins to fold clothes and place them back in her backpack. "You grabbed whatever was on the floor and shoved it in your bag."

Korra folds her arms in defiance. "I'll have you know I got a pair of pants out of my closet."

"My mistake." Asami smiles as she pushes a lock of hair behind her hair and refocuses back on packing, and it is breathtaking. Korra sometimes wishes she had realized her feelings sooner. Maybe if they had been together when she fought Zaheer, maybe if Korra had allowed her to come to the Southern Water Tribe with her like she wanted to… maybe things would have turned out differently. At least she would not have spent six months alone, fighting in broken down arenas in the slums of Earth Kingdom cities just to try to win a fight, to prove to herself that she could still be the Avatar. At least she would have had someone to vent to during her productive but infuriating time with Toph.

"I guess that's everything I _need_ ," Asami mutters, buckling her bag and throwing it over her shoulder. "You ready?"

"Let's do it!" Korra exclaims, already halfway out the door. She needs this vacation. They both do. It has been years since either of them were carefree. Korra has even caught herself missing her days in the compound, where the biggest problem she had was trying to lose the White Lotus in the tundra so she could have a minute alone to talk to Naga. She wanted her freedom. She wanted to be treated like an adult because Aang was treated like an adult at the age of twelve, and Korra has always been competitive. She did not realize until she, herself, had been forced by Amon and Unalaq and Zaheer to take on much more responsibility than a teenager should how hard it must have been for him.

"Shouldn't we tell someone where we're going first," Asami points out, following at a pace that Korra thinks is painfully slow.

Her smile falters slightly. She just wants to go. "I guess we should. What happened to Tenzin after I talked to him?"

"How would I know?" Asami shrugs. "I've been with you the entire time."

"Oh yeah." Korra rubs the back of her neck. "Well, it doesn't have to be Tenzin. We just need to find _someone_. Just so they know we're not dead or anything."

"Fine," Asami agrees. "We'll tell the first person we see, and then we'll head out."

The first person they run across is Meelo, in the kitchen trying to persuade Rohan to take a bite out of a lemon wedge. "Maybe we should wait and see who the next person is," Asami decides. Korra nods in assent.

The second person they run into is Lin. "A little early to be dressed back down, isn't it?" she comments without greeting, her eyebrows raised.

"Lin! I'm glad we ran into you!" Korra begins, somewhat over-enthusiastically, and Lin's brows raise even higher if that is possible. "We're taking a vacation."

"A vacation?" The police chief's eyes narrow.

"Yeah? Haven't you ever been on vacation?" Korra replies. "We're going to the spirit world. We'll be gone a few weeks. Can you let Tenzin know? Thanks, Lin. You're the best!" She grabs Asami's hand and pulls her down the hallway before the police chief has time to protest or further question them, but Lin simply stands in place, watching in confusion.

"That's a relief," Korra sighs as they round the corner. "I thought for sure she was going to stop us."

"I think she would have if she hadn't been so confused," Asami glances back around the corner. "You'd think she'd never taken a day off in her life."

Korra smirks. "She probably hasn't." Her eyes trail down to their still joined hands. She clears her throat and releases Asami's fingers, and the other woman smiles at her gently, patiently.

"Well, are you ready to go?" she asks, and Korra loves her for her ability move past the awkwardness so quickly.

"I couldn't be any more ready," the Avatar answers, summoning back her determination. "This is going to be the best vacation you've ever had."

* * *

"What's this about?" Lin asks as she enters the dark, nearly empty dining hall where the air acolytes usually eat. She remembers eating in here sometimes too, but that was so long ago that it feels like another lifetime. She joins the mass gathered around a table on the far end. Her sister and Bataar, Prince Wu, Tenzin, and, for some inexplicable reason, Mako, all look entirely too concerned for her liking.

"Rebellions in the Earth Kingdom," Su answers, her forehead creased in worry. Lin wishes she would not carry the entire weight of her nation on her shoulders. Their mother was not royalty, and Su has no real responsibility to anyone, no matter what Kuvira thought. She is going to make herself old before her time. Lin does not want to outlive her sister because some rogue decided she was some sort of honorary president. "We just got word from Gaoling. Civilians are rioting in the streets."

"What do they want?" Tenzin asks, tugging at his beard the way he always does when he's thinking. The way he has since he first grew a goatee in his late twenties.

"They're asking for their rightful leader back," Su replies solemnly. "Kuvira."

"What do they want with her?" Lin barks. "She was their conqueror."

"Actually, a lot of the earlier cities joined her willingly," Su explains. "Gaoling, Omashu, the fishing and mining provinces in the southwest, they saw her as their rightful ruler. Some of them still do. I was hoping once the Prince took the throne and announced his plan to install democratic governments in each of the provinces, things would calm down, but it looks like we might not be able to wait that long."

"What are you saying?" Mako asks, and Lin wonders once again what exactly he is doing in a meeting of prominent Earth Kingdom figures and world leaders. He is the Prince's bodyguard, but surely he does not feel the need to follow him into a meeting with people he has known for years. Then again, she reminds herself, Mako has always tried to involve himself in matters above his paygrade.

"We may have to go down there," Su replies.

"What, you mean with an army?" Mako sounds aghast.

"No." Su shakes her head firmly. "Taking the city with force will only make the problem worse. We need to restore order peacefully."

"How do you propose we do that?" Tenzin asks, folding his arms behind his back. The only one of them who has always known he would one day carry a nation.

"Prince Wu and I will go to Gaoling," Su decides. "We'll urge them to stop the riots until we can implement the Prince's plans for the new government."

"I can't go to Gaoling," Wu argues, speaking for the first time since Lin entered the room. "They want my head on a gold platter down there. I won't make it a day."

Mako shakes his head. "It's like you have no faith in your bodyguard."

"No offense Mako, but one near death experience is enough for one lifetime." He sounds like he is bordering on hysterics, and the police chief rolls her eyes.

"You didn't have a near death experience. You were locked in a trunk for less than an hour," Mako points out, sounding equally as exasperated as Lin feels.

"I'm claustrophobic!"

"That's enough, you two!" Lin barks, holding up a hand to quiet them. She rests her knuckles on the table and takes a breath to recollect her thoughts.

"Su, you can't expect the people of Gaoling to stop rioting and return to their houses just because you ask them to," Tenzin comments. "People can be impossible to reason with when they're emotional."

"You're right," Su admits. "We need something more. Someone they'll listen to."

"Where's Korra?" Mako asks. "She can come with us. Maybe they'll listen to the Avatar."

"Korra left," Lin answers dismissively.

"What?" Tenzin's eyes widen in panic. "When? Where did she go? Why didn't she tell me? I just spoke to her."

"She said something about vacationing in the spirit world." Lin shrugs indifferently. "She was with the Sato girl. Seemed like they were in a hurry."

"Can you still catch her?" Mako asks, looking around at the rooms other occupants. "How long does it take to get to the spirit portal on Oogi?"

"No." Su shakes her head. "Korra has been through enough for the Earth Kingdom already. She deserves to take a break. We'll figure this out ourselves."

Tenzin looks deep in thought, and when he speaks, Lin can sense by the ominousness of his voice what he is going to say. "You know who else they would listen too?"

Su and Wu look up at him hopefully.

"Kuvira."

The tense silence that falls on the room is stifling.

Finally, Su crosses her arms. "Absolutely not. She can't be trusted."

"I don't see another option," Tenzin insists. "I agree that we shouldn't rely on Korra for this. I just don't know who else they're guaranteed to hear."

"I agree with Tenzin," Lin says. "Kuvira is still a prisoner. Confine her to a bedroom. Keep someone outside her door at all times. But you have to take her to Gaoling with you. There's no other choice."

* * *

They appear near the other two spirit portals, directly in front of the Tree of Time. Asami gasps and pulls one of her hands from Korra's to bring it to her mouth. The sky swirls with the brilliant blues and purples that she remembers from this part of the spirit world, during her time here at harmonic convergence. The area still looks completely desolate, just as it did when Wan and Raava fought Vaatu and merged to become the Avatar. At least she still has the memories from previous Avatars that she accessed before her connection was severed. They are not much, but they are better than nothing.

"This is where the battle with Unalaq and Vaatu was," she murmurs, tugging on Asami's hand and leading her away from the portal. "Until it got relocated to Yue Bay, of course."

"Of course," Asami repeats absently, as if she is in a daze. She is still looking around with wide eyes, looking everywhere, like she is afraid to miss something.

"That spirit portal leads to the South Pole," Korra explains, pointing to the left. "That's the one I opened during the solstice." She redirects her finger to the right. "And that one leads to the North Pole. Unalaq opened that one from this side." She hears her voice darken, though she did not intend for it to, and Asami squeezes her hand.

"It ended up working out though, didn't it?" she asks, and Korra can tell by the uncertainty in her voice that she is trying to be comforting and is not quite sure if she is going about it the right way.

"Yeah, it did," Korra smiles reassuringly back at her. "I miss my past lives but I guess I'm still getting used to them not being around anymore, and it brought the Air Nation back, so it was probably worth it." She hides her uncertainty. Sometimes, she wishes more than anything that she had Aang or Roku or Kyoshi to talk things out with, but there are good things that have come out of what happened at harmonic convergence as well, and she knows that she is selfishly wishing them away.

"This is the Tree of Time," she directs them over the uneven ground to the twisted, old tree. "Avatar Wan trapped Vaatu inside it for ten thousand years."

"And… now _we're_ going inside?" Asami asks as Korra steps into the trunk.

"It's perfectly safe," Korra calls over her shoulder. "This is where I meditated when I projected my spirit to Republic City to fight Unavaatu. The dark spirits pushed Tenzin and Kya and Mako and Bolin all the way inside the trunk before I got back. We were all minutes away from being done for."

"All while I was back at the compound with Oogi," Asami mutters, running her fingers along the inside of the trunk. Korra is surprised to detect resentment in her voice, though she does not think it is targeted at her.

"That's probably better anyway." she shrugs, turning toward the other girl. "We all would have died if I hadn't figured out energybending at the last second. It was really just luck that saved us. That and the cosmic energy in this tree. According to legend, its roots connect the spirit world to the physical world. I guess that was a bigger deal before I left the spirit portals open though."

"Cosmic energy?" Asami repeats, still carefully studying the inside wall of the tree. She does not sound skeptical, merely curious.

"Yeah, this tree retains all memory," Korra explains. "Here, let me show you." She sits down and focuses on remembering the day she passed her firebending evaluation. She has to suppress a smirk when she hears Asami gasp.

"That's remarkable," the other woman exclaims, pointing to the image of a girl wearing red pads and jumping up and down in victory. "Is that… is that you?"

"Yeah." Korra looks up at her. "That was right before I came to Republic City. I'll do another one."

This time, she focuses on a solemn day from when she was eight years old. She appears as a child in front of them, dressed in her best furs, holding her mother's hand and standing beside a softly sobbing Katara. They are on the edge of land, looking over the water as a boat bearing a large wooden box and a torch floats out to sea.

"This is Chief Sokka's funeral," she informs her companion.

"Why are you showing me this?" Asami asks, her voice constricted, and Korra suddenly realizes in horror that she only lost her father a week ago. The memory fades.

"I'm so sorry," she cries, palming her face. "It seemed important—I forgot."

"Lucky you," the engineer sighs, but she does not sound angry, and she takes a seat beside her friend anyway.

Korra rests her hand hesitantly between the other woman's shoulder blades and is relieved when she does not pull away. "Why don't we try something happier? Maybe something you'll remember too?"

Suddenly, they are staring at a vibrant party scene. Dozens of people mingle in front of them, dressed in their best formalwear. Korra can pick out greens of Earth Kingdom citizens, reds of the Fire Nation, blue furs from Water Tribe natives, and even Tenzin's Air Nomad yellow.

"There you are," Asami says, pointing to Korra in her blue dress, appropriate for banquets in the Southern Water Tribe but rather plain compared to Republic City's elite, ambling around the party. She remembers how awkward she felt. "And there I am." Asami narrows her eyes and Korra watches her put the pieces together. "This is the party honoring your arrival in Republic City." She straightens claps her hands together. "This is the first time we met."

"Yep," the Avatar affirms as the memory fades out. It is nice to see her friend look so excited, especially right after Korra's massive lack of tact in selecting the previous memory.

"Can I do one?" the engineer asks.

"Absolutely," Korra replies. "Just pick a memory and concentrate on it."

"Okay." Asami nods, and after a moment, a young girl is standing in front of them. She is wearing a lacy black dress and a red petticoat, and her long, sleek hair is pulled back into a bow. Asami. There is no one else it could possibly be. She hugs a woman wearing a long, silk robe who could only be her mother. The woman smiles at her daughter and runs a hand through her hair. A man Korra recognizes as a younger Hiroshi Sato walks up behind the girl. He is wearing a fine suit, and the woman stands up to kiss him. Then, he takes the young Asami by the hand and leads her away as she waves to the woman over her shoulder.

They are silent for a moment as the memory fades.

Korra is the first to speak. "You look just like your mother."

"Thank you," Asami replies quietly. "That was the last time I saw her alive." She sighs and drops her eyes into her lap. "We'd been planning that dinner for months—it was my birthday dinner—but she was sick that, so she told us to go without her. When we got back, part of the house was on fire. She was still alive but they wouldn't let me see her. There wasn't anything anyone could do for her. She was too badly burned."

Korra pulls the woman beside her into a hug. It is a little awkward in its positioning. One of Asami's arms is trapped between them, but she returns the hug with her other arm and buries her face in Korra's shoulder.

"I'm so sorry," Korra murmurs, rubbing slow circles into her back.

Asami takes a long breath. "That's okay. It was a long time ago." She pulls away, wiping a tear from her eye. "It's just so strange to think that I'm the only one left in my entire family."

"I can't imagine." Korra shakes her head.

Asami places a hand on her shoulder. "I'm glad."

A strand of hair tickles the engineer's cheek, and Korra desperately wants to reach out and tuck it back in place behind her ear, but she cannot seem to make her arm move the right way, so instead, she sighs and leans away to press her hand to the wood of the tree trunk, abruptly changing the subject. "This tree is supposed to retain all memories, but for some reason I can't get it to show me the memories of my past lives."

"That's strange," Asami comments, furrowing her brow.

"Tenzin doesn't understand it either," the Avatar groans. She looks up at her friend and a smile spreads across her face. "But we're here to relax, not to mope about my past lives," she adds, much more cheerfully. "Where do you want to go first?"

"I don't know," Asami replies with a smile and a shrug. "I've never been here before, remember?"

"Oh, that's right. Sorry," Korra answers feebly, dropping her eyes down and to the side. _Smooth, Avatar Korra, very smooth._

"That's okay." She is relieved that Asami sounds unfazed.

Korra gasps. "I know where we can go." Without thinking, without giving herself time to doubt her actions, she seizes Asami's hand again and pulls her toward the opening in the tree. "Come on. I have a friend here."

"You have a friend in the spirit world?" Asami repeats, raising an eyebrow.

"It's a long story. I'll tell you over a cup of tea when we get there."

* * *

The only way to tell time in the windowless cell is when the guards drop off rice. It happens in the early morning and early evening, right before the shift changes. Kuvira is in an isolated wing of the prison, and receiving rice from the guards is the only human interaction she has most days.

Today, she fumbles the wooden bowl as it is handed to her through the platinum bars. No other type of metal is allowed in her wing. "Oops," the guard mumbles when some of the rice spills out onto the floor, even though she knows it is her fault. He is young, probably new. He has not been taught to hate the prisoners yet. Kuvira imagines the guards' jobs are easier when they hate the prisoners. It cannot be easy to watch someone you like rot.

She scoops the rice off the ground and back into the bowl as the man's footsteps echo away and tries not to think of how dirty her hands are. Her entire body is filthy. Her greasy hair hangs limply around her face. Her uniform—green lined with grey to mark her as a metalbender—was new when it was given to her. Now it is in tatters. Every few days she is supplied with a wooden bucket of soapy water, a rag, and a washed uniform. One is nearly due, but the prison was among the buildings damaged in her attack, so some of the services are irregular. She knows she is set to be moved to a prison in Ba Sing Se when the situation in the Earth Nation stabilizes, but somehow she does not expect the conditions there to be any better, especially if the Prince she usurped is on the throne. Irony is a bitter thing.

She is halfway through shoveling a handful of rice into her mouth when the heavy door at the end of the corridor opens. A man and a women enter. She can see their silhouettes before she can make out their faces. She has never seen the man before. She can tell by his uniform that he is a guard and by the amount of gold strips lining the cuff of his sleeve that he is the most senior guard she has encountered. The woman's grey-streaked hair is pulled into a severe bun. Her glasses sit low on her nose. Kuvira recognizes the woman. She does not like her. She does not like what she does, but at least her presence means Kuvira will be leaving her cell. She does not know how long it has been since she last saw the outside of her cell. Days, probably.

"Stand," the man commands. He sounds bored, and it annoys her. He does not know the meaning of boredom. "Clasp your hands on the back of your head. Turn around and back toward the bars."

She does as she is told. It should be humbling—she was a world leader, head of the Earth Nation, for however brief a time, and now she is following orders without complaint—but with the exception of the past three years, her life has been mostly humble anyway.

She gasps and tries not to recoil when the woman jabs her knuckles into her side and the center of her back. Being chi blocked is not a pleasant sensation by any means, but the guards will not risk removing her from her cell without it, so she does not complain.

"Lower your hands and clasp them behind your back," the man sighs.

She feels the cuffs latch around her wrists. They are made entirely of wood, down to the hinges. The first evening she was here, her hands twitched and fidgeted within them, and she spent the night picking splinters out of her wrists. Now she knows better. Now she holds her arms completely still, out far enough from her body that the cuffs do not catch on the fabric of her uniform.

The door of the cell swings open and Kuvira steps out. The man immediately seizes her upper arms as the woman locks the cell door behind her. They guide her up the hallway. It feels good to be outside of a cell again, even if she is only in the corridor that she spends her days staring at through the bars.

They pass through the heavy door and are in another long hallway. This one is better lit and lined with doors instead of bars. She knows that each door leads to a different line of cells. Some of them are full, some of them are empty because the roof or walls were ripped away or caved in on themselves during her battle with the Avatar. She thinks hers is the only one that only holds one prisoner.

At the end of the second hallway, they enter a tall, narrow spiral stairwell. The woman descends the stairs in front of her, the man behind, still holding tightly to her arms. She flexes her fingers to keep the feeling in them.

"What does your neighborhood look like now?" the woman asks as they walk.

"Not so good," the man answers. "The roof in my son's room was destroyed, but we were lucky. My neighbor's house is completely gone. What about you?"

Kuvira thinks they are having this conversation in front of her on purpose. It has been at least a week since she invaded Republic City. Surely they have asked each other these questions before.

They stop far from the bottom of the staircase, but when they step into the next hallway, there are windows and they are at ground level. She wishes it was not dark out. She has not seen natural light since she was admitted to the prison the afternoon after her final battle, after a hasty trial for crimes in both the Earth Kingdom and United Republic. It was not exactly protocol, but she supposes it was in the interests of the people trying to restore order to the continent that she be discredited quickly.

They enter a room that Kuvira knows to be the warden's office, but the person sitting behind the desk is certainly not the warden.

"Kuvira." Lin Beifong says her name like she is speaking to a foul-smelling slug.

"Chief Beifong," Kuriva bows her head respectfully. It is the least she can do after trying to kill nearly everyone the older woman knows.

"Sit." Lin nods to the chair in front of the desk. Kuvira drops into the rickety-looking chair and the chief looks at the man and woman still standing above her. "Leave us."

"But, Chief," the man begins to protest. "This prisoner is highly dangerous—"

"You think I don't know that?" Lin's eyes flash dangerously. "I helped take her down myself."

Unwilling to argue the matter further, the man and woman scurry from the room. Lin lowers her eyes to the prisoner in the chair. "I'm here on behalf of Suyin," she informs her as Kuvira picks at the torn upholstery. "We need something from you. President Raiko and Prince Wu are willing to talk about commuting your sentences."

She bows her head. _Anything for Su. Anything to have the woman who raised her to be willing to look at her again._

"Anything."


	2. The Conservation of Energy

There are no days or nights in the spirit world. There are simply times when the sky is drenched with beautiful yellows and pinks and times when it fades to deep blues and purples. Korra and Asami arrive at a small building with a sprawling lawn speckled with tables during one of the pink and yellow phases.

"Ah, Korra," an old man greets. He has long, white hair and he wraps Korra into a hug that she eagerly returns. "I didn't expect to see you here just now. I thought you would be dealing with the aftermath of the new portal in the physical world."

"Yeah…" Korra answers, shrugging and rubbing the back of her neck. "It's kind of right in the middle of Republic City. But Raiko—the President—seems like he has things under control. For once," she adds under her breath. Asami giggles and covers her mouth to hide it, but the old man does not look like he hears the remark. "So we decided to take a vacation. You know, get away after everything that's happened the past few years."

"Of course, of course." the man nods understandingly. "And who, may I ask, is your lovely friend?" He turns to survey Asami, smiling pleasantly. "She reminds me of my wife. She had the same beautiful black hair."

"Oh, sorry." Korra grimaces. "This is my, umm… my… well, this is Asami. Asami, this is Iroh, Lord Zuko's uncle." She looks completely mortified at having drawn attention to the fact that they are still at the stage in their relationship where they still do not know exactly what they are, but the engineer simply smiles contently over at her and some of the tension leaks from her expression.

"Oh, Iroh," Asami says, relieved to finally know who she is talking to. "You were with Lord Zuko during his banishment. General Iroh was named after you."

"Yes, I did guide Zuko through his three years on the sea, and my great niece was kind enough to honor me by passing on my name." He nods at her in approval. "Can I get you two some tea? I was about to close up for the day, but it is always nice to catch up with a friend. Or to make a new one."

"Sure," Korra answers quickly. "Come on, Asami."

She clasps the engineer's hand and leads her to a table near the door of the little shop. She gracelessly drops down to the ground, and Asami lowers herself onto the grass beside her.

"I met Iroh the first time I meditated into the spirit world," Korra explains in a rushed whisper as Iroh clinks around in the small building brewing tea. "I was terrified because I'd never been here before and I didn't know where Jinora was, and he helped me learn that here, your emotions become your reality. It was only scary because I was already afraid." She pauses in thought. "Maybe that's why everything seems so peaceful now. I've never been here when I was just… happy before."

Asami squeezes her hand and Korra beams up at her, her eyes lively and excited in a way that used to be so incredibly _Korra_ , but that Asami has not seen since her final fight with Zaheer three years ago.

The past four years have been hard on all of them: Asami, Mako, Bolin, Tenzin, Chief Beifong, but Asami cannot begin to imagine what they have been like for Korra. She is not responsible for every bad thing that happens in the world, but everyone, including her, seems to think she is.

Iroh lays a tray on the table in front of them and passes each of them a steaming teacup. "This tea, I created myself when owned a tea shop in Ba Sing Se," he tells them. "It was one of my nephew's favorites. So how long do the two of you plan to spend in the spirit world?"

"Oh, we don't know," Korra answers, glancing over at Asami. "Just until we're ready to go back, I guess."

Asami nods. "I can't leave my company for too long," she adds. "We did just loose our entire warehouse."

"Asami's the CEO of a huge company," Korra explains to Iroh, and Asami detects, to her own slight embarrassment, a hint of pride in her voice. "She's an engineer. She designed mecha-suits and these hummingbird flying machines and new wing suits for the airbenders, and she helped redesign Republic City after the spirit vines pretty much made all of downtown uninhabitable."

Iroh turns to Asami. "It sounds like you have a great mind," he tells her. "When I was in the physical world, one of our greatest minds was Sokka. He started out a boy, the only non-bender in his group of friends, unsure of his purpose, but he became an ingenious inventor and a wonderful leader."

"Yeah, well, Asami never really had an issue with being a non-bender," Korra replies, grinning at the girl beside her.

Asami shrugs. "I can take care of myself in a fight." She pulls her hand from Korra's with an apologetic smile to reach for her cup of tea. "Besides," she adds with humor in her voice. "We all know I'm the brain behind the operation. And the money. You guys would never have gotten anywhere without me."

Korra laughs. "We'd have to fly everywhere on Oogi. I love flying bison as much as the next Avatar, but I don't know how Aang and his friends did that for a whole year." She nudges Asami in the ribs. "Not to mention that we'd have to take Tenzin everywhere with us."

Asami furrows her brow. "But Sokka was the chief of the Southern Water Tribe. I met him once with my father. Are you saying that when he was younger, he was ashamed of not being a bender?"

"We have only what we see in front of us," Iroh comments. "When Sokka first met Avatar Aang, he could not see his own abilities. It took time for him to find them in the dark. You see your intelligence and your strength, despite your inability to fight the way your friends do, so it has never been a detriment to you. Korra, you see your power as the Avatar: your bending prowess, your spiritual connection, and the infinite knowledge you can call on from thousands of past lives—"

"Not anymore," Korra sighs, her body deflating. Asami sets her cup down and places a comforting hand on her shoulder that Korra gratefully covers with one of her own. "I lost that connection when Unalaq ripped Raava out of me during Harmonic Convergence. I haven't been able to communicate with my past lives in years."

Iroh knits his brows together. "You mean they didn't come back to you when you defeated Vaatu and reunited with Raava?"

"Nope," Korra answers bitterly. "I was too late."

Asami sighs and moves her hand from Korra's shoulder to slide it all the way around her body and pull them together. Korra has learned to live without guidance from the previous Avatars. There was not much to get used to, to be honest. She was only really in contact with them for a year, but Asami knows that Korra blames herself for their loss, nonetheless. On both her own account and behalf of all of the future Avatars who will have thousands fewer past lives to consult. She was eighteen when she made the decision to trust her uncle and open the spirit portal at the South Pole, and she is barely twenty-one now. Asami wishes she would not carry the weight of all of the mistakes she has ever made with her.

"That is unusual," Iroh comments.

"What do you mean, unusual?" Korra asks, her interest suddenly peaked. "Have Avatars been separated from Raava before? Was Aang?"

Iroh shakes his head. "It is unusual because, like the energy of the physical world, spiritual energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred. That is something I have learned from living here among the spirits for many years. When Raava was destroyed, your past lives were transferred into Vaatu. I do not understand why, when you destroyed Vaatu, they were not transferred back into Raava."

"Does that mean my past lives are out there somewhere?" Korra asks, perking up to Asami's relief. Korra has a smile capable of making her feel warm even in the South Pole, but Asami has hardly seen it in the time they have spent together since her friend's return to Republic City.

"I am not an expert on spiritual energy," Iroh replies. "But I do not believe that they were destroyed forever."

"But if they're not gone…" Korra pauses like she is expecting to be corrected, like she thinks it is too good to be true. "I can get them back."

Iroh nods. "Perhaps."

"How?" Korra exclaims. She jerks forward, slamming both hands on the table in unbridled excitment. Asami grasps both her and Korra's cups of tea to keep them from spilling, but Iroh is unfazed.

"That, I cannot tell you," he answers. "But I can point you to a place where you might find the information you are looking for."

* * *

"Kuvira."

Su's voice is as cold as Kuvira has ever heard it. She remembers eating dinner with this woman's family. It was only three years ago, but it feels like ten.

"Hello, Su," she answers almost too quietly for the other woman to hear. They are in the old council room in City Hall. Su and the Prince are standing in the back of the hall, directly in front of the semi-circular table where five individuals used to govern the city.

"Has Lin told you why you're here?" Su asks without any further pleasantries. Kuvira did not expect any. She was willing to sacrifice her relationship with her mentor when she believed she was doing the right thing for her people. She still believes that reuniting the Earth Kingdom when Su would not was right, and she does not regret refusing to hand her people over to an incompetent ruler, but she regrets the way she did it. She should not have announced her own ascension at the Prince's coronation without even speaking to the other world leaders first, she should not have goaded the Avatar into fighting her, and she should not have invaded the United Republic. She was over-confident and over-zealous, determined to prove how serious she was by starting a war. Now her mighty Earth Empire, the one she painstakingly put together over three years, is under the control of the idiot Prince. The idiot Prince and Su. Well, at least Su knows how to govern. She should have been the one to reunite the nation in the first place. Kuvira still believes that.

Now Kuvira has nothing, and she knows she will never have a leadership position, never have any position where she is authorized to fight, again, but she thinks that would not be too bad if she had _anyone_.

"There are uprisings in the Earth Kingdom," she recalls. "In some of the first provinces to joinme."

"The ones that did so _willingly_ ," Su adds.

"Yes," Kuvira agrees, straining to keep the emotion out of her voice. "Those ones. Lin wasn't specific about what exactly you want me to do."

"Kuvira, what do you want to see become of the Earth Kingdom?" Su asks. She steps forward, away from the table, to approach the woman still in her wooden handcuffs.

Kuvira sighs and drops her eyes, searching for an answer that will sound right to both her own ears and Su's. "Stability," she finally replies resolutely. "And prosperity. Under any leader."

The other woman nods in approval. "Congratulations. We can work together." She gestures over Kuvira's shoulder at Lin, and then Kuvira can feel the cuffs being removed. She brings her hands in front of her and rubs her wrists as Lin places a hand on her upper arm to direct her farther into the room, toward the Prince and his bodyguard.

"The rebels in the south want you back as their leader," Su explains. "That is not happening," she adds quickly, as if Kuvira actually thought that was a possibility. "But we want to take you down to Gaoling to defuse the situation."

Kuvira raises her eyebrows. "How do you expect me to do that?"

"We want you to publicly declare that you support Prince Wu," Su answers. Kuvira frowns. It is a reflex. She had been trying to keep her face neutral. "You said under any leader," Su points out. "Besides, the Prince will not be on the thrown for long." She turns to the boy beside her. Kuvira is not sure how old he actually is, but he looks like a teenager. "Why don't you tell her your plan, Wu?"

"I would be happy to," he replies. He turns to Kuvira with a dramatic flourish that nearly makes her roll her eyes. "Once I'm on the throne, I'm going to allow all the provinces to hold free elections, where they'll elect their own leaders. The idea of one giant Earth Kingdom is just so outdated, don't you think? I couldn't possibly keep track of Goaling and Omasha," Kuvira grimaces, and she notices that Su does the same, "and Zaofu all between my facials and manicures and shopping outings. My interests have never been in world politics anyway. I'm going to hold elections, and then I'm going to abdicate my throne and begin my career as a pop sensation. That's really where my talents are." He waggles his eyebrows suggestively. "I can get you a backstage pass."

"I'll pass on that," Kuvira answers dryly, and she thinks she sees a smile tug at Su's lips.

"Wu is going to announce his plan in Gaoling in a few days," she explains. "We're hoping if you accompany us down there and give a speech endorsing it, it will put an end to the rebellions long enough for us to get a stable government in place."

Kuvira gives a solemn nod. "I'll do it."

Su raises her eyebrows in surprise. "Just like that?"

"As surprised as I am to be saying this, the Prince's plan is a good one," Kuvira explains. "You've been telling me my entire life that the Earth Kingdom's system of government needed to be updated. I thought I could accomplish that on my own but… I failed. If that's really what the Prince wants," she glances over at him before her eyes return to Su, "then our interests are aligned. I'll make a speech. I'll even write it myself."

"Oh." Su blinks. "Well, good. The Earth Kingdom thanks you, Kuvira."

The Earth Kingdom thanks you, she repeats in her head as Lin takes her by the arm and leads her back out of city hall, back into the sun and the delicious breeze that she has so desperately missed. The Earth Kingdom, not Su.

She did not think that loosing everyone would be quite this painful. Even after her break from Zaofu, she had not been alone. Baatar was there, and it was the two of them against the world. Now she feels only a pressing darkness that she recognizes from her early childhood on the streets and from occasional nights in Zaofu as an adolescent, when she laid curled up in her bed wondering what sort of parents abandoned their child and whether they would have kept her if she had been better somehow. She recognizes it as loneliness.

* * *

Kuvira emerges from the council room first, flanked by Lin. She is not restrained, save for a hand from the police chief on her arm as a guide and a warning. Her head is downcast, and she does not notice Opal. The airbender is leaning against the wall right beside the door waiting. Mako and Wu appear next. She receives a dramatic wink from Wu and an exasperated eye roll from Mako, which she returns. Then, finally, her mother makes her way into the corridor.

Opal pushes herself off the wall and hurries to catch up as Su turns in the other direction. "Mom!"

"Opal?" her mother whirls around. "Where did you come from?"

"Over there. I was waiting for the meeting to end." She tosses a thumb over her shoulder to halfheartedly gesture at the wall. "What happened? Why was Kuvira here? She's not out of prison is she? If she's out, Baatar should be out too—"

"Kuvira is still a prisoner," Su assures her. She sighs and places a hand on her daughter's shoulder. "We need her to help end the riots in the South. If she can do that, we may amend her sentence. It's the only way—"

"You might what?" Opal repeats in disbelief. Her voice is dangerously low, and it shocks her that she is speaking to her mother so similarly to the way Kuvira spoke to her and Korra and Jinora in Zaofu.

"We may have to talk about commuting her sentence," Su answers, and Opal can see the resignation written on her face. "Don't think this is easy for me, Opal. Baatar Jr. is my son, and Kuvira tried to kill us all. If we could use him instead, don't you think I would?"

Opal lowers her head. "Yes," she reluctantly admits.

"He just doesn't hold the same sway with the people," Su continues. "And his relationship to me will make him look more suspicious if he suddenly changes his ideals."

"Did Kuvira suddenly change her ideals?" Opal asks, her eyes darting over her mother's shoulder, where her aunt is guiding the erstwhile dictator into a police car a little too gently, in Opal's opinion.

"Kuvira wants what's best for the Earth Nation," Su replies, choosing her words carefully. "And she's realized that that is no longer her. She supports Wu's plan to break apart the monarchy and form a system of smaller democracies."

"So what are you going to do?" Opal asks. "Won't Kuvira being out of prison just feed the rebellion?"

"We're hoping that if she endorses the Prince, the people will follow," Su explains. "We're taking her to Gaoling to give a speech when he announces his plan. If she is successful in defusing the tension, we will talk about reconsidering her sentence. That's all."

Opal frowns in dissatisfaction, but finally, she nods. There does not seem to be another option. Her mother is right. Her brother's word will not mean nearly as much as his fiancée's—ex-fiancée's—to the regime's supporters.

Su nods in return and begins to turn to leave City Hall.

"Wait," Opal calls after. "I want to come with you."

"Opal, you really don't need to," Su replies. "Mako and I are just going to take her and the Prince to Gaoling, wait for them to speak, and then leave. We're not even staying overnight. It's not going to be very exciting, and there are riots in the streets. I'd really rather you not be there."

"I've been all over the Earth Nation over the past three years, Mom. I helped fight a giant mecha suit," Opal reminds her fiercely. "I can handle it. I might be an airbender now, but the Earth Kingdom is still a part of me. It's where I grew up. It's where my family is. I want to help. Besides," she shrugs, "That's what the Air Nation does, isn't it? We help keep the peace."

Su considers it for a moment. "Okay," she finally decides. "We're leaving tonight. I'll ask them to prepare a room for you on the airship. But once we land, I want you at my side at all times. No wandering off."

"Mom, I'm nineteen, not nine," Opal laughs. "I'm not going to wander into the middle of a riot. It'll be fine."

"I'm sure it will be," Su replies, a smile growing on her face. "Sometimes I forget how much you've grown in three years." She draws her daughter into a hug. "I'm so proud of you."

"I know, Mom." The airbender's voices is muffled by the fabric of her mother's robes.

"We're leaving at sunset," Su adds as she allows Opal to pull away. "If you're not onboard, we're going without you."

"You wish," Opal calls, already turning down the corridor in the other direction. "See you at sunset."

* * *

"So do you want to do it?" Asami asks when Iroh stacks their empty cups on the tea tray and takes them into the little building.

"Do what?" Korra asks, confused.

"Try to find your past lives, of course," Asami answers, rolling her eyes as if that should have been obvious.

"Oh," Korra shrugs. "I don't know. This is your vacation. We're supposed to be just having fun. I don't want to ruin it with Avatar stuff. I can come back later. I've been without them for a while now. I can handle another couple of weeks."

"Nonsense," Asami replies. "Korra, this isn't _my_ vacation, it's _ours_ , and if this is what you need to do then we'll do it. The important thing is that we're here together."

"Really?" Korra winces as she says it, because it sounds stupid and over-eager even to her own ears.

"Of course, really." The engineer drapes her arm around her friend and jostles her shoulder. "I've never been here before. I won't even notice the difference. I didn't come for the sights."

"Oh," Korra squeaks, suddenly feeling very much like her heart is in her throat. They came here alone together, and that was something that both of them wanted, but Korra had not considered the possibility that it may have been one of Asami's primary objectives in agreeing to the vacation. Korra's primary motivation had been only to get her friend away from the pressure that comes with being the CEO of a large company before she started to crack. Roamance was really more of an afterthought. Korra knows that Asami is strong, but she does not need to worry about redesigning the city _again_ so soon after losing her father.

The awkward transition between friends and something more is not something that either of them has ever encountered before. Asami asked Mako on a date the first time they met, and Korra announced her intentions to him before any sexual tension had even had time to develop. They are navigating this transition for the first time together, and while Korra is relieved that she is not the only one who is not quite sure what is happening, sometimes she thinks it would be nice if at least one of them knew what to do.

"How about we go try to figure out what happened to your past lives, and we'll just have fun along the way," Asami suggests, and Korra nods in hesitant agreement. "It'll still be perfect. You'll see."

Iroh emerges from the shop and sets a plate of rice cakes in front of them. "Have you given any more thought to my offer?" he asks as he sits back down across the table.

"Yes," Asami answers before Korra has time to speak. She is making sure that Korra cannot change her mind at the last minute, the Avatar realizes. "We want you to tell us where we can find information on reconnecting Korra to the other Avatars."

Iroh nods. "Very well." He gestures toward the mountain where Korra remembers returning a baby dragon bird spirit to its nest. "If you cross the meadow, you will find the library of the ancient spirit, Wan Shi Tong, knower of ten thousand things, hidden beyond the trees. If you bring him a new piece of knowledge, he will allow you to use his books. If knowledge of the answer exists, you will find it in Wan Shi Tong's library."

"Thank you, Iroh," Asami replies. She smiles over at Korra reassuringly. "We'll start over there as soon as we leave here. Right, Korra?"

"Sure," Korra answers as Asami's hand slips from her shoulder to the small of her back. She ducks her head as she feels her cheeks begin to flush.

"You know, being the Avatar is a job that is almost too big for any person to take on alone," Iroh comments, and Korra finds she could not agree more with that statement. "Aang had many accomplishments during his times as the Avatar, but much of what he did was with the help of his friends. I do not believe that I ever saw him make an important decision without talking through it with Katara first." He nods across the table at Asami. "I am glad the two of you found each other."

Korra's blush deepens. She feels the hand on her back tense, and when she looks up at her companion, Asami's face looks no less red than hers feels.

* * *

The wing of the prison where Baatar Jr. is being held is laid out differently from the one that housed Kuvira for a week. It is designed to model Fire Nation prisons, Kuvira is certain. The hallway is lined with thick wood doors. In the Fire Nation they are made of metal, but wood burns, and Kuvira imagines that the Fire Nation prisons do not hold very many metalbenders. Behind each door, half of the room is barred off. The other half is meant for visitors. Kuvira is grateful that she was not imprisoned in a cell like this. She cannot imagine spending so much time in such an enclosed space.

When the door opens, Baatar looks up hopefully, but his face darkens almost immediately. "What are _you_ doing here?" he growls. Prison has not treated him well. His painstakingly groomed military haircut is beginning to grow out. There are dark circle under his eyes, and his glasses are dirty. Baatar was always meticulous about the cleanliness of his glasses, even as a child.

"Hello, Baatar," she replies, despite his lack of greeting. She supposes she will have to get used to being addressed like this. Gaining the trust of the world leaders and then betraying them and invading another nation does not tend to gain a person many friends, after all. "I've been granted temporary release to assist your mother with a situation in the Earth Kingdom."

"She released you?" Baatar's eyes widen in shock and horror.

"I get the impression she wouldn't have if she'd had any other choice," Kuvira assures him.

He nods as if trying to convince himself before scowling back up at her. "What is it that it's so important it be you?"

"I'm going to give speech in support of the Prince in Gaoling to quell the riots," she quickly explains.

Baatar knits his brows together. "There are riots in Gaoling?"

"Yes," she answers curtly. "Supporters of our regime."

" _Your_ regime," Baatar amends fiercely.

"You were just as important as I was," Kuvira argues. "You built me an army. I couldn't have done what I did without you."

"You didn't seem to think that when you promised you would save me and we would go home to our empire, and then you shot the spirit cannon at me instead," he points out.

Kuvira sinks to her knees on the other side of the bars. "I knew the Avatar and her friends were with you, all in one place," she answers. "I knew if I took them out, I would finally be able to reunite the United Republic with the Earth Nation. I wasn't going to get another chance like that." She breathes a heavy sighs. "I was willing to sacrifice my life for our cause. I didn't realize you weren't willing to do the same."

He is silent.

"Would you have laid down your life to take down Zaofu, Baatar?" She studies him carefully as he struggles to answer. "You were so eager to take the city by force. Is that because you were sacrificing others' lives instead of your own?" She frowns, though she knows that either of them is in a position to judge the other. "Think what you want about me, Baatar, but I never asked others to risk their lives when I wasn't willing to do the same."

"You forced people to risk their lives when _they_ didn't want to," he points out. "Do you think it made any difference to the people you took from their villages against their will what _you_ were willing to give _your_ life for?"

"The people _we_ took," Kuvira amends. "I admit that that's true," she adds. "But I am not the first ruler to conscript an army. The Fire Nation had mandatory military service until the end of the One Hundred Year War, and the Earth Kingdom still does. I find it very interesting that you never had a problem with any of it until the person I was asking to give their life for the cause was you. Cowardice doesn't suit you, Baatar."

"If you thought I was so cowardly, why did you even let me come with you," he sneers as Kuvira shakes her head in sorrow.

"Because I admired your mind. I knew you could be useful," she replies, before hesitating for a moment. "And because I was in love with you. If you wanted to come, I wasn't going to leave you behind."

"You were already in love with me when we left Zaofu?" he asks, the venom suddenly gone from his voice, replaced with shock.

Kuvira laughs, and it comes out hallow. "I've been in love with you since we were teenagers," she admits. "I still am."

Baatar frowns again. "You tried to kill me."

"And I regret that, and I think if I'd killed you and gotten my empire, I would have still regretted it," she replies. "But I don't expect my regret to make it right. I know that my feelings are no longer returned." She glances up at him for a sign of confirmation and he nods solemnly. "I didn't come here for a romantic reunion. I didn't expect one," she continues. "I came to apologize for nearly killing you and… to say goodbye."

"You say that like we'll never see each other again," Baatar comments in slight amusement. He tilts his head to the side the way he used to when he was watching Wing and Wei fight at the dinner table, back when they were only children who played mostly with each other while the adults in the city exchanged knowing looks that Kuvira would not understand until years later.

"I doubt we will," she answers. "I'm going to help your mother stabilize the Earth Kingdom, and then I'll return to prison to serve the rest of my sentence. Regardless of who gets out first, I don't think your family will want to see me again, and I'm sure I won't be welcomed back in Zaofu."

"Good," he answers, "Maybe I'll actually be able to sleep peacefully when I return home," and though it stings, Kuvira can hardly blame him.

She sighs and drops her eyes before speaking again. "I want you to know that I really did love you, for whatever that's worth."

"I really did love you too," Baatar tells her, but some of the steel has returned to his voice. "It's too bad you turned out to be a psychopath."

"You are just as responsible as I am for everything we did. We did it all together." She stands up and shakes her head at this horribly failed relationship, this relationship she had wanted since she was fifteen. Maybe in another lifetime, where there was no Red Lotus or where Su was a little braver, it would have worked out. "I guess neither of us are very good people. Goodbye, Baatar."

She turns and leaves the cell, and though every fiber of her being is fighting to do so, she does not look back.


	3. This Is My Dream

"I'm going with you," Bolin says, crossing his arms in determination, and Opal sighs. They have been through over an hour of this. Opal had just been hoping for a quiet dinner with her boyfriend, and instead, they have been fighting.

"You should stay here," she urges. "Republic City needs you, Bolin."

"You and your mom and Mako need me too," he insists. He sounds so sure of himself, and Opal hates that she does not want him to come, but she really feels like this is something that her family needs.

"You're a powerful earthbender," she argues. "You can help rebuild. With Korra and my mom gone, you and Aunt Lin are all the city's has left."

Bolin narrows his eyes. "Why do I feel like you're trying to get rid of me?"

Opal drops her head into her hands. "Because I am," she groans. "Not… not like _that_ ," she adds quickly. "I just… really want this to be something I do with my mom." She shrugs and examines a scratch in the table to avoid his eyes. They will be wide and sad, like they belong to a baby animal. Bolin's eyes are just _like_ that and it makes it very difficult to say no to him sometimes. "It's sort of my family's fault things got so out of control with Kuvira in the first place. I just feel this is something _we_ need to fix. By ourselves."

"But I messed up too," Bolin protests. He pauses to thank the waiter when a bowl of noodles is pushed in front of him. The steam from Opal's own bowl warms her face and makes her stomach growl in impatience, but she ignore it. "I worked for her for three years when it turned out she was throwing everyone who disagreed with her in reeducation camps, and I didn't even know about it."

The airbender reaches across the table and lays her hand on top of his. "And you can make up for it by helping my aunt get Republic City back on its feet. You're needed more here. My mom and your brother and I can handle Kuvira. I promise."

He sighs, long and heavy, and stares down into his bowl of noodles. "When do you have to leave?"

Her mouth curls into a sad smile. "Sunset," she tells him. His lip juts out like a toddler and he will not meet her eyes. "I don't like that I have to leave when we just got back together either," she adds. "But it's only for a couple days. That's like nothing after three years apart. We'll still be closer than we ever were before."

"Pabu and I already miss you," he mutters despondently, twirling a noodle around his chopsticks.

"I miss you already too." She leans across the table to lay a kiss on his cheek. "Don't worry. This time next week, you won't even remember I was gone."

He nods, though Opal does not believe he is convinced. "So… did you actually see Kuvira?" he asks after a moment, and Opal nods. "How did she look?"

He is still upset, but Opal can see that he cares about the answer, even though he is trying to mask it. She does not blame him. He did spend three years working closely with the erstwhile dictator. Kuvira is in some of Opal's earliest memories. Kuvira took her down to the stream to skip rocks when her parents needed time alone after the twins were born. She gave Opal amateur dance lessons when Wing and Wei started bending and she still hadn't, just so that she would have a talent that made her special too. Kuvira was there when she wanted someone other than her mother to talk with about boys, and she was there again when Opal discovered she was an airbender. If Kuvira and Baatar Jr. had started dating before they left Zaofu, Opal would have been ecstatic. She may hate Kuvira now, but she still cares what happens to her.

"She looked…" She bites her lip and searches for the right word. One word to describe the woman who was once an older sister to her, and then an arch enemy, and who now just seems sad. "Tired," she decides. "Defeated."

"Oh," Bolin replies. He is still playing with his noodles. Opal wonders if they will ever get eaten at this point. "I guess that's… I guess she deserves that."

"She does." The airbender nods determinedly. "The world leaders trusted her, and she betrayed them. My mother trusted her."

"You trusted her," Bolin points out, and she grimaces. He is usually so clueless, but he can be very perceptive when he wants to. Usually when it is least convenient for her.

"She betrayed all of us," she answers finally, her voice cold and hollow, as she realizes that she has not touched her noodles either.

* * *

"This mountain isn't as tall as I remember," Korra comments as she pulls herself onto the ledge and reaches her hand down for Asami to take. "I guess I _was_ in the body of a five year old last time I tried to climb it."

"You were… what?" Asami narrows her eyes in obvious skepticism as she rolls her body onto the ledge beside the Avatar.

"In the body of a five year old. Literally," Korra repeats. "I got aged down somehow. I think it goes along with the whole your-emotions-become-your-reality thing. I felt helpless so I became helpless or something like that. Talk about inconvenient." She grimaces.

"And why were you climbing a mountain as a five-year-old?" Asami smirks and raises a sculpted eyebrow at her. "Why am I not surprised?"

"I had to return a baby dragon bird spirit to its nest," Korra explains with a casual shrug, as if that is the sort of thing she does every day. Though, she realizes, it is actually one of the more mundane tasks she has performed during her short tenure as Avatar. "Come on." She gets to her feet. "I'll show you the nest."

"Is that a good idea?" Asami asks as they start to walk up a gradual incline. "In my experience, it's not usually smart to get close to an animal's young. I don't know if the same rule applies to spirits…"

"I don't either," Korra answers, biting back a snicker as Asami's eyes widen in concern. "But it doesn't matter. It… fused… with its brothers and sisters or something and became a fully grown dragon bird spirit."

The look on Asami's face is nothing short of comedy gold. Korra almost wishes that the press was here to capture this moment. "When was this?" she asks when she finally regains the ability to speak. "Where was I when all this was happening?"

"It was after I had that huge fight with Mako and we broke up, and then I left for the Fire Nation, but I got attacked by my cousins and that dark spirit and washed up on an island with no memories, but then I got them back and went to find Tenzin to warn him about Raava, and I meditated into the spirit world with Jinora." She says it all in one breath and then gasps for air.

"Oh," Asami replies after a moment. "So it was when I was in Republic City getting back together with Mako."

"Oh yeah," Korra answers with a nervous laugh. "I guess so."

"It's so strange thinking about all those things now," Asami comments, leaving Korra grateful that she did not linger on that painfully awkward situation. "It feels like a lifetime ago. I can't believe it's been only a few years."

"Tell me about it," Korra agrees. "Fighting Amon, leaving Tenzin to train with Unalaq, all that stuff seems so distant. Sometimes I feel like I've lived two different lives," she admits, chancing a glance at Asami to find her listening intently. "Life before I got poisoned and life after."

"I'm sorry, Korra," the engineer answers quietly. "I wish I could have been there for you the last three years."

"I told you not to come," Korra waves off the apology. "Some things you just have to do alone, you know?"

"But you were in so much pain," Asami argues. "You should have had _someone_."

The Avatar lays a hand on her shoulder. "I had your letters," she answers. "Yours and Bolin's and Mako's. I think they kept me afloat when I was in the South Pole. I don't know what I would do without all of you."

Asami laughs. "Do you remember when we first met?"

"Of course," Korra answers, falling into a fit of laughter as well. "At that party that Tarrlok threw _in my honor_." She groans and rolls her eyes. "I did not like you at first."

"Really?" Asami asks, clearly surprised, and Korra feels a pang of guilt. "For how long?"

"Only until I spent some time with you." She waves off her friend's concern. "Don't worry. You're pretty hard to hate. It was just the whole Mako thing. It brought out the worst in me."

"At least we got past it," Asami replies, and Korra silently agrees. Mako is one of her best friends, but their romance was a mess, doomed to fail from the moment Korra kissed him fresh off of a date with his brother while he was dating someone else. Their actual relationship had been nothing but heated arguments punctuated by heated periods of making out. Korra thinks that Mako's relationship with Asami seemed a little healthier, but she is not positive. She and Asami were not exactly best friends back then, and she did, Korra realizes as guilt continues to wash over her, break them up before it got too serious.

"You weren't what I imagined the first time I met you," Asami admits, jerking Korra out of her thoughts.

"What were you expecting?" She jabs the engineer in the ribs with her index finger and then wonders if maybe she shouldn't have, but her friend smiles back at her.

"You were smaller than I imagined," Asami tells her slowly. "And younger. I mean, I knew how old you were, but I guess I expected you to look more mature somehow." She hesitates and her cheeks redden. "And I didn't expect you to be so beautiful."

"Stop," Korra mutters, smiling and dropping her eyes.

"You asked me what I thought," Asami points out.

"Yeah," Korra agrees absently as a hand finds hers and a set of fingers lace themselves through her own. She honestly does not know how she got so lucky, because Asami Sato could have anyone she wanted. Asami Sato, she has been informed by Ikki, was named the United Republic's Most Eligible Bachelorette by the Republic City Gazette two years running while she was gone. Asami waited for her. Korra did not even realize she had developed romantic feelings for her best friend until after she left, but Asami waited for her.

"Umm, we're almost to the nest," she says as they approach the mountain's peak. "I can see it up ahead."

"Wow," Asami gasps. "It's… not as big as I expected it to be."

"It looked a lot bigger when I was five," Korra admits. "Like I said, when I returned the baby to its nest, it sort of… merged… with the other babies and they became a fully grown dragon bird spirit, and it let me ride it to the Tree of Time, and then when I was fighting  
Unalaq and loosing, it saved me."

"Oh… that sounds… exciting," Asami answers awkwardly, like she is not sure how she is supposed to respond to that. Her hand tenses around Korra's, and Korra thinks she hasn't quite gotten the hang of the spirit world yet.

"See, it's probably a good thing you weren't here for that," the Avatar adds. "Everyone who was almost died a couple times." She hears Asami sigh beside her and decides it is time to move the subject off of death for a while. They have both seen enough of it. "That must be the forest Iroh was talking about," she comments, pointing to a mass of trees in the distance. "And I know there's no night and day here, but I think we should get some sleep at some point."

Asami squeezes her hand. "That sounds good."

* * *

The first night on the airship is relatively calm, given the present company. Kuvira is confined to her room. Mako sits with Opal and Su in the lounge across the hall. Wu found a Pai Sho board under a couch during the first hour of the trip and loudly challenged each of them individually to "the game of his ancestors," but Opal and Su had been much too preoccupied with the prisoner across the hall to pay any attention, and Wu would not accept the street rules that Mako had been taught by Shady Shin, so all three games ended rather quickly. Wu then bid them all goodnight with the words, "A Prince needs his beauty sleep," and retired to bed, and now the remaining inhabitants are all staring aimlessly around the room and at each other from three different couches. Mako almost wishes the Prince was still around. At least they would not be bored.

"What time are we supposed to get to Gaoling tomorrow?" Opal asks, the first one to speak in an hour.

"Early afternoon," Su answers. "We need to catch people on their way home from work."

"The Prince is speaking first?" Mako looks up from the stain on the carpet that he has spent the past ten minutes staring at. It looks like wine. Or blood. Probably wine, but making up stories in his head about how blood was spilled on a carpet in the lounge of a United Republic airship is more fun.

"If he doesn't, no one will know what Kuvira is talking about," Su points out. "We can't have her supporting a plan no one has even heard yet."

"I was just thinking that it might be easier to get people's attention with Kuvira," Mako explains. "I mean, if everyone in Gaoling wants her to be in charge, they might not care what the Prince has to say."

"That's… actually a decent point," Su replies, looking baffled, much to the firebender's annoyance.

"I do have good ideas occasionally, you know." He scowls and crosses his arms.

Opal reaches over the coffee table and pats his knee reassuringly. "Don't worry, Mako. We know you're not just decoration for Prince Wu." In an instant, her benign smile transforms into a smirk. "Even if you are really good at just standing there and looking pretty."

Mako slouches unhappily as Su stands up and begins to pace. "Maybe we should have Kuvira introduce the Prince. It will show additional support for our cause if people know she's cooperating with us."

Opal furrows her brow. "Are you sure that's a good idea? Maybe we shouldn't have her on stage any longer than we need to. All she'd have to do is say the word and Wu could be assassinated right then and there."

"That is why I'm here, you know," Mako growls.

"I just mean we shouldn't take any more chances with her than we need to," Opals looks to her mother for support.

"I'm confident that Kuvira won't try anything," Su states. Her daughter groans and drops her head into her hands. "She has too much at stake. If she insights a full-on civil war, she'll never see the outside of a prison cell. She knows that." The metalbender's eyes flit through the doorway to the door on the other side of the hall. "I believe that her remorse is genuine."

"Mom, I know you want to trust her," Opal protests. "You raised her. She was like part of the family, but I think you're letting your emotions get in the way of what's the smart thing to do here."

"Opal…" Su sits down beside her daughter. "You're angry at Kuvira, and I don't blame you. Your brother is in prison because he joined her. I'm angry at her too. I never wanted to see her again, but that doesn't mean I can't see that she isn't lying. Do you think maybe you're the one who's feelings are getting in the way of knowing what we need to do?"

"Your feelings are both getting in the way," Mako cuts in. "Su, maybe you are placing a little too much trust in the person who just tried to destroy all of Republic City. Opal, maybe you aren't willing to see that she's still capable of doing the right thing. Kuvira has to introduce the Prince. We can't take the chance that no one will listen to him. But we also need to keep our eyes on her. If she shows any signs to doing or saying anything we haven't agreed on, we get her off that stage."

Su and Opal stare at him, their eyes wide.

"I told you," he cries in exasperation. "I do occasionally have an intelligent thought."

Su speaks again after a moment. "We have to be careful about it. It can't look like we're trying to silence her."

"If anything happens, I'll light something on fire and we'll pretend we're putting her back on the airship for her own safety," Mako decides. Su gives him a sharp nod, though Opal still looks extremely wary, and Mako wishes he was as confident in his plan as he sounds.

* * *

They set up camp just outside the tree line because Korra is extremely reluctant to let her guard down in the forest.

"I've never been camping before," Asami admits as they drop their backpacks on the ground, both groaning in relief. "Should we, I don't know, build a fire or something?"

"I don't think we really need one," Korra answers, rubbing the back of her neck. "Since it doesn't get dark here or anything."

"Oh. Right," Asami replies. She drops to the ground, leaning heavily against her supplies. The view from the nest was beautiful, but climbing up and back down even a small mountain in one day is exhausting. It is hard to know what time it is because it does not get dark, but Asami thinks they should have gone to sleep hours ago.

"Are you hungry?" Korra asks, sounding hopeful. "I brought some food from the wedding?"

"I think I'll hold off until tomorrow morning. I mean," she amends. "Whenever we wake up."

"Good thinking," Korra sighs, but her expression falls in disappointment. She sits down across from the engineer and rests her chin on her knuckles. "I don't know what to do," she admits. "Usually when you camp, you make a fire and cook food over it and tell stories until you get so tired you pass out. It seems wrong to just lay down and go to sleep right away. Besides," she tries to smile, but it wavers on her face. "I want your first camping experience to be done right."

"Okay, then." Asami sits up and shuffles over so that she is sitting next to her friend. "Let's tell stories."

"Okay," Korra agrees. "Umm, you want to go first?"

"Sure," Asami answers. She taps her finger on her chin for a moment in thought. "How about the first time I drove a satomobile?" Korra nods eagerly, and she begins. "I was ten—"

"You were ten years old?" the Avatar repeats in surprise.

"Yes," Asami shrugs. "I grew up around them. We had our own track. Why not?"

"I have a feeling I'm about to learn why not," Korra mutters, rolling her eyes. Asami smirk and continues.

"I was at the track with my father. He was test driving his new models. It was our favorite way to spend a Saturday. We used to spend hours down there." She feels sadness beginning to loom over her body and suddenly realizes that maybe she should not have chosen story in which her father features so prominently. She shakes her head to clear her mind. "So we were at the track, and suddenly he turned to me and asked me if I wanted a turn. I said yes. I thought he was joking."

"He wasn't?" Korra asks, leaning toward her interest. "Who just asks a ten-year-old if they want to drive a satomobile?"

"My father, apparently," the engineer answers. "Anyway, he sat me in the driver's seat, told me what all the buttons and levers did and how to shift gears, and then he let me go."

"What happened?" Korra gasps.

"Well, I was doing pretty well while I was going straight," Asami explains. "But then I had to turn."

"Uh oh."

"Uh oh is right. So I turned the wheel, but it wasn't enough because I was going kind of fast by that point," she tells Korra. "Think my father might have been running after me, calling for me to slow down, but I can't remember for sure. Anyway, the second time, I turned it too hard, and the satomobile—the new model that my father had just finished—spun around backwards on two wheels and then fell over on its side." Korra hisses. "Yeah." Asami nods. "My father was not happy, but he wasn't really mad at me, because what was I going to do? I was a little kid, and he was the one who put me in the car."

"So did he not let you drive again after that?" Korra asks.

"Not for another year," she replies. "I tried again when I was eleven and I did fine, and then I learned how to fly an airship two years after that."

Korra leans back and shakes her head slowly from side to side. "What was he thinking?"

"I think he forgot I wasn't my mother sometimes," Asami explains. "I mean, he knew of course, but I think he forgot he couldn't do all the same things with me that he did with her." She crosses her arms over her knees and rests her chin on top of them.

"What was she like?" Korra asks softly. "I mean, we don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. I just thought—"

"Korra." Asami stops her. "It's okay." She sighs. "She died when I was six, so I don't really remember her that well. My father says—said that she was a genius. She was one of the only people he considered his intellectual equal. He used to tell me it was a good thing he married her, because if he hadn't, she would have started her own company and run him out of business." She feels a hand on her back, gently sliding up and down. She strains to remember pieces from her childhood, from before her mother died, and she hates that they do not immediately come to mind the way they used to before her father went to prison and she became preoccupied with running the large company that was now hers.

"I remember that she loved music," she recalls. "She played a couple of instruments. She was going to teach me when I was old enough, but of course I never learned any of them. She liked to sing. She had a beautiful voice. If I ever needed to find her, all I had to do was follow the music. She used to sing to me when I had nightmares. Of course, I didn't have that many of them until after she died, and then she wasn't there anymore." There are tears in her eyes, but she does not wipe them away. Her father used to conceal his tears, but it has never helped her. She looks over at her companion. "You're so lucky both of your parents are still alive."

"I know," Korra replies, her voice cracking. She wraps her arms around Asami's stomach and pulls their bodies together so that Asami can rest her head on the other girl's shoulder, and, amidst her grief over her father, she cannot believe her sudden turn of luck. Her feelings for the Avatar progressed beyond friendship when they were fighting Zaheer, once the whole mess with Mako was over and they were becoming closer, but she never imagined that she would have her. After all, Korra is the most powerful person in the world. She could date anyone she wanted, but the first thing she chose to do after setting balance to the world was take a trip with Asami. ,

"I didn't think it would bother me this much," the engineer admits. "Up until a few weeks ago, I hadn't even seen him in the three years, and he helped Amon take away so many people's bending in my mother's name. That's what make it so terrible. Her entire family were firebenders. He should have known she wouldn't have wanted that."

"But you forgave him," Korra explains. "You thought the two of you were going to get a fresh start. And he was still your father. Whatever bad things he did, he never stopped loving you, and I don't think you ever really stopped loving him either. That's why it hurts so much."

She rests her hand on Korra's arm. "I wish I could tell you my mother would have liked you," she comments. "But I don't remember."

* * *

At first, Su thinks they might not need Kuvira to introduce the Prince after all. The airship landing in the middle of the city attracts enough attention on its own. By the time they are ready to disembark, a small crowd has gathered in the town square in curiosity.

Su's hopes are dashed when Wu starts down the ramp. He is just far enough behind Mako that the crowd has an unobstructed view of him, as Su is certain they have rehearsed. She can already hear a wave of boos overtake the people in the square. She thinks the Prince might be more likeable if only he stopped looking so smug all the time. She and Opal glance at each other in concern. Kuvira, standing between them, is silent.

"You go next," Su whispers to her, an edge in her voice. "But I'm warning you one last time, if you do anything to cause trouble, I'll make sure you'll never see the outside of a jail cell again. No one will stick up for you this time."

Kuvira laughs. It is hollow and it gives Su chills. had such a musical laugh as a child. "Did anyone stick up for me last time?"

"Just go," Opal orders, and Kuvira obeys her, pasting on an alarmingly realistic smile and descending the ramp. The boos turn to cheers almost immediately.

Her daughter turns to her. "Are you sure this was the right decision, Mom?"

Su sighs. "I'm rarely sure about my decisions anymore." She shakes her head and peers around the side of the doorway. The crowd is already growing. "You should go. If they see me, they'll think Kuvira's saying what she's saying under duress. The most important thing is that they believe her when she pledges her support for Prince's plan."

"But, Mom, won't they know I'm your daughter?" Opal argues, but Su shakes her head.

"When they look at you, they won't see a Beifong. They'll see an airbender." Opal sighs and starts to bow her head, but her mother places a hand under her chin to stop her. "That's a good thing," she adds. "Our family is… not very popular right now, no matter where you are. Some people are angry that we helped bring Kuvira down, others are upset that we didn't step in to stop her earlier, but the airbenders did everything they could to help, no matter who needed it. The airbenders are the only people in the Earth Nation who everyone trusts. I'm glad the airbender legacy is the one that follows you."

"Okay," Opal murmurs. Su drops her hand and watches as her daughter disappears through the doorway.

There is a moment where no one speaks and Su knows Kuvira is waiting for the crowd to finish cheering. Then she begins. "People of Gaoling, I stand in front of you today with the Prince of the Earth Nation, heir to the throne." Su can hear boos scattered throughout the crowd. "When I came to this city three years ago, I had a plan. You listened to my plan and made up your own mind to follow me. Now, all I ask is that you listen to the Prince's plan as well. People of Gaoling, Prince Wu."

Despite the less than enthusiastic welcome Wu is receiving from the crowd, Su dares herself to entertain the thought that this could actually end well. Kuvira is a talented speaker. She always has been, even as an eight-year-old on the streets of Ba Sing Se, talking strangers into giving up money or food.

"My dear people," the Prince begins. "My great aunt ruled this country from a throne in Ba Sing Se, just like my great-grandfather before her and my great-great-grandfather before him, but, in case you haven't noticed, Ba Sing Se is a little far from here. I've spent a lot of time in the United Republic over the past couple of years, and I have to say, I like what they have going over there." Su cannot hear anything from the crowd, but nothing is certainly better than the heckling she imagined. "I don't know how familiar you guys are with foreign politics, but they elect their leader every few years. It's this new thing called a democracy. I know I'd never heard of it before, but it really got me thinking. The Earth Kingdom is too big to be ruled by one person. You guys don't need the same things they need in Omashu and the people in Omashu don't need the same things they need in Ba Sing Se. Whatever the person on the throne decides to do, it's going to be bad for someone, and I'm all the way in Ba Sing Se, so really, the people it's the most likely to be bad for is you." Murmurs are beginning to rise through the crowd, and Su clenches her teeth, waiting for the big announcement.

"I have come to you today to announce that when I take the throne, I am going to break the Earth Nation into states based on the provinces we already have. I will set up elections in each state and the people will choose their leader. The states with be completely independent from one another. Then, I will abdicate the throne. There will no longer be one united Earth Kingdom."

Within seconds, the crowd is in an uproar. Su can hear shocked cries, yelled obscenities, and she sincerely hopes that Mako is good at his job. She hopes that the crowd will calm down enough to hear what Kuvira has to say.

"People of Gaoling!" she can hear to former dictator call in an attempt to restore order. "People of Gaoling!" The screaming dulls, but Kuvira does not have the crowd's undivided attention the way she did when she first appeared on the ramp. "The Earth Kingdom's monarchy is broken. This is something the Prince and I agree on. For generations, we have had nothing but corruption. We had a King who was not aware that he had lost most of his nation to a war. We had a Queen who disappeared her citizens when she wanted them in her army. Then you had me. I had noble intentions when I started out on my quest. I wanted to bring the Earth Nation into a new era, and era of prosperity and stability that we have not seen since before Fire Lord Sozin decided to invade almost two hundred years ago.

"When I came to you, I asked you to join me in my mission. I offered you an Earth Empire, and you agreed. You sent your children to fight with me. Over time, however, the provinces began to stabilize themselves. They had problems with bandits and with imports that they were no longer receiving from other parts of the continent. Their people were starving, but they did not want to relinquish their power to a stranger. If a general marched an army up to my door back in Zaofu and demanded we hand over control, I would not have wanted our matriarch to agree, but my admission prevented me from remembering that. I did not want Earth Nation citizens to starve, but more than that, I wanted to realize my dream, my mentor's dream, of a strong and free Earth Empire. I came to Gaoling a uniter, but I assure you, by the time I took the Hu Bo province, the Yai province, and Zaofu, I was a conqueror."

The crowd is growing louder again, angrier. Su would like to feel moved about the things Kuvira is saying, the wrongs she is admitting in front of a crowd of her supporters, but things are becoming too heated. Kuvira seems to sense it as well. She plows on. "I come to you today to let it be known that I am in full support of Prince Wu's plan to break up the Earth Nation and install elected leaders. The Earth Kingdom's monarch controls more land, more resources, and more people than anyone else in the world. I no longer believe that any one person is capable of holding that much power and not becoming corrupted by it. This way you will be able to hold your leaders accountable. They will be forced to put your interested in front of their own. This is my dream for the Earth Nation. It always has been, and I hope that I will one day see this dream become a reality. I stand behind Prince Wu, and I stand behind the Avatar."

The noise outside is deafening. Calls of, "Liar!" and "Great Uniter!" and "Free Kuvira!" ring through the air. There is a crash from somewhere on the square, and then it grows so loud that Su can no longer distinguish one sound from the other.

Opal emerges through the doorway first, pulling Kuvira by the elbow behind her. Then, Mako pushes Wu back onto the airship in front of him and begins cranking the wheel to retract the ramp.

"I think that went well," Wu comments cheerfully, brushing off his suit and smoothing his hair. Opal rolls her eyes.

"He's just never been greeted by a welcoming crowd," Mako explains as he finishes rolling in the ramp and pulls the door closed. It does not drown out the roar of the people in the square.

"They're not going to believe a word I'm saying as long as they think I'm being told to say it," Kuvira points out. Su would like to admonish her for her pessimism, but it is what they are all thinking.

"We need to get back in the air," she says instead. "I can still hear them outside. We'll come up with another plan on our way back to Republic City."

"I just hope we didn't make it worse," Opal mutters. No one replies.


	4. Silence In the Library

Korra wakes with a start when it is still dark out. She is panting and covered in a familiar cold sweat. Panic floods through her body as she surveys her surroundings with wide eyes, her hands lit with fire.

"Korra?" she hears from nearby, and she jumps a foot in the air and lands with her arms poised to strike. "Korra, it's okay. It's me. Asami." There is a hand on her arm, gently lowering it to her side. "You're still having the nightmares." It is not a question.

Korra nods, her chest still heaving. She cannot catch her breath long enough to speak. She feels like she might be sick.

"Do you want anything? Water? We could go for a walk," Asami suggests. It was how they handled the nightmares right after Korra's injury, before she left for the South Pole. Asami would run into her bedroom to calm her down, bring her a cup of water, and wheel her around the temple while she drank it. It happened every night in those early days.

Korra nods again and allows Asami to help her up. The engineer bends over to pick the canteen out of her backpack and holds it out to her. Korra feels a pang of guilt as she empties it, but Asami only laughs. "That's okay. We'll walk to the stream to refill it."

Asami takes her hand and they embark beyond the trees to the stream where Asami filled the canteen when they first made camp. "How often do you have them?" she asks quietly. There is a sadness in her voice that Korra wants to make better but knows she cannot.

"Not too often," she answers. "It's been less and less since I stayed with Toph."

"That's good," Asami says, and Korra nods mutely. "Are you okay, you know, otherwise?"

"I haven't had any hallucinations since Zaheer guided me back into the spirit world," she answers. "But I still don't feel… as strong as I did before."

"I think that's natural," Asami replies. "Korra…" she hesitates, "you know how much I care about you, right?"

Korra grimaces because this conversation has taken a turn she did not expect it to and she is unsure how to answer. "I think so?"

"I care about you a lot," Asami tells her. "If you ever need anything, I don't want you to feel like you can't come to me for help because my father just died. We help each other. That's how this works. Mutual support. Nobody's problems make the other's unimportant. And we've both been through a lot. I know we're going to need it."

"I know," Korra answers. "But you spent weeks taking care of me after I got hurt. I just wanted to spend this vacation focusing on you."

"You're so sweet." She feels Asami's other hand on her arm, just above her elbow. "But you don't need to _pay me back_ for doing that. I was happy to."

"I know," Korra repeats. "But that doesn't mean I don't feel bad about it. I didn't exactly make those few weeks easy for you."

Asami shakes her head. "You were hurt. I knew that. But you were my best friend and I…" she clears her throat, "liked you a lot, so I wanted to do it. You don't have anything to feel bad about. If I hadn't wanted to be with you during those weeks, I wouldn't have been."

Asami's smile is reassuring, but it does not mute the anger she feels toward herself for not being able to take care of the engineer for even an entire day without needing to be taken care of herself. She is the _Avatar_. She has held the world on her shoulders. Why can she not do this?

They reach the stream, and Korra crouches down to fill the canteen, reluctantly removing her hand from that of her friend. When she stands back up, Asami places a hand on her shoulder. "Are you ready to go back?"

The honest answer is no. Korra would much rather continue their walk through the forest. There is something peaceful about it, something inherently romantic, vastly different from the way Korra remembers it, when Vaatu's dark spirits lurked around every corner. But the sky is already in the process of cycling back from blue and purple into pink and yellow, and Korra should let Asami get back to sleep. They will need to be well-rested when they arrive at Wan Shi Tong's library. She nods as her hand finds Asami's again, and they start back in the direction they came.

"I want you to know…" Korra takes a deep breath before she continues, "that I really like you too, and I wanted to make this vacation about you because I thought you deserved it, after everything you've been through. Most of it would never have happened if you hadn't met me." She can feel heat rising to her face. Talking about feelings has never been one of Korra's strong suits. Lack of communication in either direction was one of the many components that caused her relationship with Mako to fail, and she will not make the same mistake again.

Asami squeezes her hand. "The past few years have been hard for both of us," she answers. "Yes, I've been through a lot, and sometimes I felt like it was worth it and sometimes I didn't, but Korra, I have never been sorry that you are in my life."

Asami drops her hand, and for a moment, Korra feels empty as disappointment sinks through her body. And then Asami's hand is on her chin instead, dragging it to the side to face her, and Korra becomes acutely aware that they have stopped walking. Asami is coming closer and she does not know what to do, so she does not move. Their lips touch. It is the softest kiss Korra has ever experienced.

Once she recovers from her initial shock, she leans into it. She places her free hand on the back of the engineer's neck, weaves her fingers through her hair, and pulls her closer. She feels Asami's fingers leave her chin and slide down her neck to rest on her shoulder. It is so much different than kissing Mako was. It is not spurred on by anger or simple hormones. It does not feel like a competition with both of them fighting for dominance. Emotion is being conveyed, strong emotion that Korra does not fully understand, through their wrestling tongues, like they are trying to say everything they have ever wanted to say to each other.

When they break apart, Korra immediately misses the contact. Asami's cheeks are tinged pink, and she is looking at Korra like she has never seen her before. "Umm, that was…" the Avatar stammers, dropping her eyes. "Umm…"

"Perfect," Asami finishes, taking the hand that is fidgeting anxiously at Korra's side. "It was perfect."

* * *

Su is manning the controls when the calls comes in.

"Hello?" Tenzin's voice says from the radio on the control panel. "Su? Mako?"

"Tenzin," Su replies into the speaker. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

She can hear him sigh on the other end and she knows that something has happened. It is the same sigh she used to hear as a child when she and her sister stayed with his family while their mother was out of town and he had to admit to his parents that he and Lin had broken something, because, as she can recall Lin lamenting, _"He's too much of a goody two shoes to just blame it on Kya or Bumi. We all know his parents would believe it."_

"It's not good news," he informs her. She squeezes her eyes shut. She had known that stabilizing the Earth Nation for the second time in three years would not be easy, but she never expected it to be quite so frustrating, and she certainly never expected anyone to call for Kuvira's reinstatement. "I'm afraid the riots have spread up the West Coast."

"What are we talking about?" Su asks hopefully. "Fishing and mining villages?"

"Omashu," Tenzin answers gravely.

Su bows her head and forces herself to take a breath before answering. "I don't think we can do anything about that now. Kuvira's speech… didn't go over welling in Gaoling."

"We have to try," the airbending master insists, and Su grits her teeth in anger.

"What do you want me to do, Tenzin?" she growls. "Take Kuvira down there and tell her to give another speech when her first speech may very well have fanned the flames? They were accusing her of lying. They were chanting, _Free Kuvira_. What we need to do is take her back to prison and think of a better plan."

"We have to at least try," Tenzin argues.

"Trying could make it worse," Su exclaims. "What if she gives another speech, and then there are riots in Ba Sing Se?"

A beat of silence and then, "Ba Sing Se is a long way from Omashu."

"That's not the point, Tenzin. That's completely irrel—"

"Su, listen to me." She breaks off immediately. Lin. "We have to try this. We just don't have any other options right now, short of send in an army, and I know that's not a move you would support."

"Neither of you saw what it did to Gaoling," Su protests. "I did. They were breaking things is the town square. We had to rush everyone back onto the airship and leave immediately. I'm telling you, this won't work."

"Can you try asking Kuvira to change her speech?" Tenzin asks diplomatically. Su hates how calm he can be under so much pressure. _Airbenders_. "Maybe having her throw her full support behind the Prince was too much of a stretch. Why don't you try simply having her ask people to put an end to the violence?"

Su hates to admit that he may have a point.

"I know you don't want to hear this," Lin begins. "But maybe we should try asking for Kuvira's input. She stabilized the Earth Nation remarkably quickly three years ago. She obviously understands how to manage people."

"We are not going to ask the woman we just arrested for staging a coup for advice on handling the nation we took from her," Su answers with finality. "For all we know, if we give her any power, she could use it to put herself back at the head of an army."

"You told me you thought her remorse seemed genuine," Tenzin comments. "Has she done anything since she's been with you to change your mind?"

Su hangs her head. "No." This is not just about her pride, she tells herself. It is about the security of the Earth Nation. It is about Kuvira not knowing that the world leaders cannot control the people she made follow her at the tender age of twenty-three without breaking a sweat. If Kuvira knew that information, she would use it, wouldn't she? Anyone would.

Unless Su was right about Kuvira's remorse. Unless what Kuvira told her about only wanting the best thing for the Earth Nation is true. The best thing still is not Kuvira.

"We'll go to Omashu," she agrees, though she knows she will regret it.

"Thank you, Su," Tenzin replies. He sounds so earnest that it pains her.

She hangs the speaker back on its hook and braces herself with a fist on the top of the control panel. This entire mission was a mistake. Perhaps agreeing to help Wu stabilize the Earth Nation in the first place was a mistake. She built Zaofu in a time of piece. She resolved disputes over land and work hours and how old children should start learning metalbending. She knows nothing about rebuilding a war-torn continent.

But neither did Avatar Aang. Neither did Katara or Sokka or Fire Lord Zuko, she reminds herself. Neither did her mother. No one just _knows_ how to do anything like this.

"Mom?" a voice comes from behind her. "Are you okay?"

Opal is standing in the doorway looking concerned. Opal is older now than any of her mother's friends were when they ended the Hundred Year War, she realizes, and Opal is not even twenty yet. Su is a forty-eight-year-old woman, and she can figure this out.

"I'm fine, dear," she answers, though she can see the disbelief in her daughter's eyes. "We need to go speak with Kuvira."

* * *

Even though Korra and Asami have not talked about the kiss, Asami does not think they have stopped touching each other all morning. Whether it is Korra's fingers through her hair as they woke up, her palm on Korra's knee as they ate breakfast, or their hands clasped together as they walk, they have been in almost constant contact. The kiss was the wakeup call they both needed to move from a mutually acknowledged attraction and uncertainty as to their relationship status into the early stages of a romance, and for Asami, it could not have come too soon.

"We should be getting close," Korra tells her, her brow furrowed in concentration as she surveys the forest around them.

"Do you know what Wan Shi Tong's library looks like?" Asami asks.

Korra shakes her head. "No, I've never been there. Jinora was there once, before Harmonic Convergence. I think it was where Unalaq found her." She shrugs. "I've never really talked to her about exactly what happened. The new airbenders started popping up right away, and then that whole thing with the Red Lotus. We never really got a chance."

"Well, hopefully it's conspicuous then." She does not even notice that Korra has stopped in her tracks until their shoulders collide.

"I think it's pretty conspicuous," Korra replies, gesturing in front of them. Asami gasps. They are standing before huge, ancient-looking stone building suspended upside down from the canopy of the forest.

"Do you think that's it?" she asks.

Korra shrugs. "I don't know what else it would be. Come on, let's check it out." She pulls Asami through the trees until they are directly under the dome roof. Then, she wraps her arm tightly around the engineer's waist and catapults them into the air and through the skylight. As they enter the building, the world rights itself and they land lightly at the center of a cavernous hall. They are on a bridge, Asami realizes as she recovers from the daze brought on by having her world literally turned upside down. She can see floors and floors beneath them, more than she can count, and they are surrounded by books in every direction except for up.

"Wow," Korra gasps. "No wonder Jinora ended up here. I bet she loved it." Her voice echoes through the building. Asami can hear an ominous movement from within the depths of the library. As it becomes louder, she can distinguish it as the sound of wings flapping. Her hand twitches toward her backpack, where her chi blocker glove is stowed, but she reminds herself that it is unlikely to have any effect on spirits. It would probably just make them angry. She brought it with her out of habit more than anything. Habit and some twisted sense of sentimentality, because it has gotten her out of some sticky situations and it was made by her father. Like he was watching her, even when she hated him.

There is a sudden rustle of feathers, and then a massive spirit that looks like a barn owl with a long neck emerges from the bowls of the library and lands on the bridge. "What are you doing here? Humans are not allowed in my library."

"Are you Wan Shi Tong?" Korra asks, stepping forward bravely. "We just need to look around. It won't take long. I'm the Avatar."

"The Avatar?" The spirit recoils. "I gave the Avatar a chance many years ago, but he stole knowledge from me. Knowledge to use in a war. There are no humans allowed in my library. No exceptions."

"Was Aang here?" Korra's eyes widen.

"Oh course he was, foolish girl," the owl hisses. "If you are who you say you are, you should know that."

"My connection with my past lives was broken three years ago. I've been out of contact with them ever since. Iroh—you might know Iroh—he told me there might be a way to repair it. I need to know if that's true," Korra pleads. "The information Aang took from you was used to bring an end to a war that had been ripping apart the human world for a hundred years. He used your knowledge to bring peace. Please help me."

"Wait," Asami steps forward. "You let anyone use your library who can bring you a new piece of knowledge, right? I might have something." She taps her chin with her index finger and calls on years on engineering expertise. "Do you know how airplanes stay in the air? Air catches under the wings as the plane is taking off. The wings are positioned at an upward angle, so that the plane is the most aerodynamic when it's traveling up at a diagonal. Once the plane picks up enough speed, air does all the work."

"Hmm." Wan Shi Tong tilts his head to the side. "It seems like you could accomplish the same thing with an airbender."

"But there aren't many airbenders out there," Asami explains. "This way, anyone can fly."

"That was very informative," Wan Shi Tong replies. Korra and Asami begin to smile at each other before he speaks again. "But there are no humans allowed in my library. No exceptions. You can thank your past life if you ever see him again." Before Asami knows what is happening, they are falling through the air. They land with a thud on the forest floor.

"Ouch," Asami grounds, rubbing her hip as she stands up.

"Sorry," Korra grimaces, "It happened too fast for me to catch us."

"It's okay," Asami assures her. "So now what?" She gazes up at the building in the sky. "Iroh said Wan Shi Tong would help us."

"I guess he was wrong," Korra shrugs. "Maybe he didn't know about whatever Aang did."

"But he must have helped Jinora when she was here, right?" Asami asks, furrowing her brow in confusion. "And she was with you."

"Maybe he didn't know that, or maybe he did and—" Korra gasps.

"What?" Asami's eyes widen.

"Unalaq caught up with Jinora at Wan Shi Tong's library," the Avatar exclaims. "What if Wan Shi Tong tipped off Unalaq that she was here?"

"You don't really think he'd do that," Asami says, though it is more of a question than a statement.

"I don't know," Korra answers. "If he did, he cost me that battle with Unalaq and my connection to my past lives."

"Well, there's only one thing we can do about that now," Asami replies. "We have to get back in there."

* * *

Kuvira is sitting on the side of the bed looking a lot more defeated than Su expects her to when they enter the bedroom where she is staying. She looks up as soon as the door opens, and her eyes widen in surprise, but she does not say anything.

"Your speech spurred riots up the coast," Su informs her coolly. Kuvira looks like she might be about to stand, but then she simply shakes her head.

"That wasn't my intention."

Su cocks her head to the side, studying the other woman carefully. She certainly does not look pleased with herself, and pride is not something that Kuvira has ever been able to conceal. Hesitantly, she answers, "I believe you." Beside her, Opal frowns.

"What now?" Kuvira asks. "Are you taking me back to prison?" She does not even sound particularly upset by the idea. Only resigned. For a moment, Su almost wants to ask if she is okay, and then she remembers her family's imprisonment, how Kuvira invaded Republic City with apparently no regard for human life, how she tried to kill them all, and she pushes the impulse from her mind, even if this is not the Kuvira that she remembers.

"No," Su answers, to an alarmed "What?" from Opal.

"We're going to Omashu," she explains to her angered daughter and the confused former dictator. "Tenzin wants you to give another speech. I'm not optimistic after how the first speech went…"

"Mom, no offense to Tenzin, but that's a terrible idea," Opal protests. "Did he just not believe you when you told him it made things _worse_ in Gaoling?"

"Tenzin thinks we may have come on too strong with Kuvira's support of the Prince's plan," Su answers. "He wants her to try simply asking the crowd to abstain from violence."

"What is Tenzin thinking?" Opal grumbles, crossing her arms.

"He's thinking," Su replies softly, in a voice that is carefully measured, "that Kuvira knows how to get people to do what she wants." Kuvira's jaw clenches, and Su thinks it is out of aggravation from being talked about like she is not in the room. Su understands that feeling. Her mother used to do it. She takes a deep breath and turns to the prisoner. "He wanted me to ask you if you have any ideas." Opal scowls in rage, and Su turns to her. "I don't like this any more than you do, but we have to give Tenzin's idea a try." She focuses back on the former dictator. "If the Earth Nation had rebelled against you while you were leading them, what would you have done?"

Kuvira sighs and stands up. Su can tell that she is wrestling with something, and as soon as she speaks, Su knows why. "If they were small-scale riots, I would have sent the participants to reeducation camps. If it was a large-scale rebellion, I would have given them what they wanted. I would have withdrawn my protection from the region, let them deal with bandits and the elements and a trade embargo with the other regions for a while and waited for them to come back."

Su is silent for a moment. Opal only looks more furious. "What happened to you?" Su whispers. "You were wrong when you left, but you were idealistic. You had good intentions. You were never… malicious or spiteful or… ruthless."

"Power," Kuvira answers simply, and Su understands. So much power in the hands of one person inevitably corrupts them. It is exactly like she said in her speech. It is why the Earth Kingdom has not had a decent monarch in generations, and it is exactly why Su did not agree to reunite the Earth Nation herself.

"That's why you should have listened to us when we told you not to go," Opal growls, crossing her arms, and Su considers reminding her daughter that she was not there but decides against it. They are all angry with Kuvira, but she and Opal used to be close, like sisters almost. Certainly closer than she and Lin ever were.

"I was trying to help my people," Kuvira argues. "No one else was doing anything. Someone had to step in. I didn't… intend for everything to get so out of control."

"No one ever does," Su sighs. "But that's not what we need to be focusing on right now. We need to come up with a plan for what we're going to do when we land in Omashu."

"Is this a conversation the Prince should be in on?" Kuvira asks, raising an eyebrow. A beat, and then all three of them begin to laugh, and it almost feels like three years ago.

* * *

"Okay, it was farther up than I thought it was," Korra pants as she heaves herself into the library. The sound of her breath echoes in the hall, and she tries to quiet herself so that Wan Shi Tong does not hear her through the silence in the library and come back, but it only makes her feel like she cannot breathe.

Asami is still a few feet below, clinging to the vine. "If you die in the spirit world, do you die in real life?" she asks, though the question seems to be moot, at least for now, as she pulls herself up beside the Avatar.

"Yes," Korra answers with a weak laugh. "It's not a dream or anything. This is still real life."

"Just checking," Asami replies. "I think I might have a heart attack."

"My arms are probably about to fall off," Korra retorts.

"Don't worry," Asami assures her. "If you die in here, I'll bring your body back to your parents." There is a smile in her voice.

"As long as you still get out okay," Korra agrees.

"You can leave me here, if I go," Asami continues. She pushes herself up with some effort and stretches her arms over her head. "There's no one left to bury me. I'd want you to save your strength for saving yourself."

" _I_ 'd want to buy you," Korra answers softly. "Or maybe light you on fire and send you off on a boat. That's how we do it down south. You can't really bury bodies in the snow."

"You're very sweet." Asami smiles fondly down at her. "Where do you think we should start? This place is huge."

Just then, Korra hears footsteps. They do not sound loud enough or far enough apart to be Wan Shi Tong's, but she sits bolt upright and looks around.

"Hello there," she hears Asami say, and she jerks around to look at her. The engineer is bending over to talk to a fox. "Are you a spirit?" It would be comical if Korra had not seen much stranger things in the spirit world. "Are you here to help us?"

The fox cocks its head to the side and perks up its ears, and Asami gives Korra a significant look. She is the Avatar, she supposes. She knows more than Asami about what they should be looking for. "Umm…" she pauses to think. "Is there anything in here about reconnecting with past lives?" The fox sits down. She takes it for a no. "Is there anything about Raava or the Avatar spirit?" she tries again.

The fox stands back up and takes off down one of the isles. "Does it want us to follow it?" Korra asks, looking to Asami for help.

"What else would it want?" Asami replies. Korra gets to her feet and they run after it, through rows of books, down a spiral staircase, across a bridge, and up a different staircase. By the time the fox stops to pull an enormous, worn-looking book from the shelf with its teeth and drop it into Korra's hand, they are several floors down with no idea how to navigate the maze of shelves.

"Do you think it will stick around to help us find out way out?" Asami asks as Korra flips through the pages of the book.

Korra shrugs. "I have no idea." She nods toward the balcony, where they can see light shining in from the top of the dome. "At least we know it's that way."

Asami pears over her shoulder as she flips through a chapter about Raava and Vaatu's ten thousand-year battle, a chapter about Avatar Wan's travels and the lion turtles, and a chapter about Vaatu's imprisonment in the tree of time. "I wish I'd known all this information was right here the first time I was in the spirit world," Korra mutters, and she feels Asami squeeze her shoulder.

"Where do you think this book came from," Asami asks, reaching around Korra to turn a page herself.

"One of the past Avatars probably," Korra answers. "One of the early ones. The connection weakens the more lives are in between. I didn't even know Wan existed until I was attacked by that dark spirit and lost my memories."

"These chapters are just about Wan and Raava's travels as they tried to restore balance," Asami says as she flips the pages, although the book is right in front of Korra. "There's nothing in here about the Avatar spirit itself or the connections between lives."

"Great," Korra groans. She looks down at the fox. "Isn't there anything else in here." The fox whines and lays down. "I'll take that as a no."

"Maybe there's something else mentioned in this book, or someone who would know or something," Asami suggests. "Do you recognize any of these names?"

"It was ten thousand years ago," Korra answers dully. "Do you really think any of these people would still be alive?"

"I don't know," Asami replies. "How long do spirits live?"

"Vaatu did tell Wan he lived ten thousand lifetimes before humans even existed," Korra says slowly, realization dawning over her. "Do you really think there are other spirits around today who remember when Raava merged with Wan?"

Asami shrugs and smiles down at her. "It's worth a try, don't you think?"

"Here's a section on Wan collecting knowledge for Wan Shi Tong's library," Korra mutters as she skims the words on the page. "And this is the thanks I get? Okay, we're not asking him." She flips another few pages. "Here's a section on Wan investigating a disruption at what's now the Misty Palms Oasis that the settlers thought was a haunting but turned out to be the aye-aye spirit reclaiming his oasis from the spirit world. Huh, that's interesting. I didn't know it was the same place. It's really gone downhill since Wan's time."

"What's the aye-aye spirit?" Asami asks, and Korra remembers that the engineer does not know Wan's story past what Korra has told her.

"He met Wan right after he was banished from the lion turtle city," she explains. "He was the caretaker of a spirit oasis, like the one at the North Pole where the moon spirits live. I have no idea if he's still around or where to find him if he is." She sighs and moves to the next chapter.

"That looks haunting." Asami points to an illustration of a spirit with a body that looks like a twisted tree and seven faces but no eyes.

Korra squints at the hand-written caption beneath the image. "The Mother of Faces." She flips back a page. "This chapter is about Wan negotiating a truce between a feuding mother and son. The Mother of Faces and Koh, the Face Stealer. Wait!" she cries. "I've heard that name before." She reads on. "Yes! I think Aang met him! That means he's still around! Maybe he knows something! We at least know he met Wan!"

"Korra…" Asami says warily, but Korra ignore her.

"All we have to do is find him!" Her voice is escalating in volume. "Maybe he can tell us something—"

"Korra," Asami tries again. "Is that really a good idea? He's called the Face Stealer."

"It's okay," Korra answers pointing to the words on the page. "It says he can't steal your face unless you show emotion. All I have to do is keep my face completely neutral." She waves her hand dismissively. "Piece of cake. It says here that his lair was in a cave under a dead tree on the outskirts of a swamp. It's been ten thousand years, but maybe it still is. We have to go there."

"Korra, are you sure you don't recognize any _other_ names?" Asami asks, but before Korra has time to respond, the meager light from the dome roof is gone, and they are encompassed in shadow.

"I told you," Wan Shi Tong storms at them. "There are no humans allowed in my library."

Korra drops the book and seizes Asami's hand. "Run!" They hurdle behind the shelf as the spirit charges at them. Korra glances at their surroundings. She has no idea which staircase they came down or even which direction it is in. She drags Asami along the wall behind the shelf, along a path that is too narrow for Wan Shi Tong to follow. He mirrors their movements on the other side of the shelves along the balcony.

They come to a spiral staircase. Korra is not sure if it is the right one, but she climbs it. It only takes them up two floors, and, with a thud, the owl spirit lands on the balcony just as they reach the top. "I forgot he could just fly," Korra whispers in vague annoyance. She is not sure if he still knows where they are. They creep along the side of the wall, trying to stay behind the shelves and under the cover of darkness. Light shines in from the dome roof.

"Wait," Korra hisses. "If he can fly between the floors, so can we."

"Korra, you don't have your glider," Asami points out.

The Avatar only smiles. "I don't need it. Come on."

Before Asami has time to protest any further, Korra grabs her hand and pulls her through the next row of shelves toward the bridge. Just as she reaches the railing of the balcony, she wraps her arms tightly around the engineer's waste and launches them over the edge with a gust of air.

They are falling. Korra rights herself so that her feet are facing down and summons a burst of fire. It slows them, but they do not stop. She is holding an extra body, she realizes as Asami's arms are wrapped around her neck. She is carrying extra weight. She takes a deep breath, closes her eyes, and allows herself to fall into the Avatar state.

When she opens her eyes again, she feels like she is the embodiment of power. They slow to a stop, and then they are rising, shooting toward the ceiling with increasing speed, fueled by the flames burning beneath her feet. Asami's arms tighten around her.

A shadow blocks the skylight as Wan Shi Tong takes off from the balcony to block their exit, but Korra knocks him to the side with a wave of her fist and a strong gust of air. They shoot through the hole in the ceiling and are met with light and warmth. Korra staunches her fire and summons a sphere of air around them to cushion their fall to the earth.

Korra picks herself up from the forest floor and reaches for Asami. "Come on, we've got to go."

They run through the forest as fast as their feet will carry them, though Korra's chest is burning. They do not stop until they reach a stream and there is still no sign of anything following them. Korra drops to her knees on the bank.

"Does Wan Shi Tong… ever leave… his library?" Asami pants beside her.

"I don't know," Korra answers weakly. "I don't hear… anything behind us." And then she feels a rough shove to her shoulder, and when she looks over in shock, Asami is glaring at her.

"Don't ever do that again," she demands.

"Don't do what again?" Korra asks, baffled. "I saved us."

"You almost killed us," Asami fumes. "Do you have any idea how close we were to the ground floor?"

"I knew I could do it," Korra fires back. "And we're fine. We wouldn't have gotten out any other way. I don't know what you're so upset about."

"You didn't even tell me what the plan was," the engineer answers. "I thought you were improvising. I thought we were going to die."

"Oh." Korra drops her eyes.

"We were hidden," Asami continues. "You had time to tell me."

The Avatar sighs. "I guess you're right."

"I know there are things you can do that I can't, Korra," Asami explains. "A lot of things. And that's fine. I don't care. I can do things that you can't do too. I'm just someone you have to save, and I'm not along for the ride. I'm your partner. Your equal partner."

"I'm sorry," Korra mutters. "I _do_ know that. I guess I just don't always act like it. I'm used to people relying on me to fix everything…" she trails off, still short of breath.

"It's okay." There is a hand on her back, rubbing up and down her spine soothingly. "As long as you know that you can rely on me to help you."

"I know," Korra answers, looking up at her companion. Asami's gentle smile signifies that she is no longer upset. Cautiously, Korra leans in to lay a kiss on Asami's lips. "Thank you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the lack of update last week guys. This semester's been a little rough so far. They say it's very front-loaded, so hopefully it will get better.


	5. Intelligence and Courage

Omashu looks no better than Gaoling did. There is nowhere to land an airship in the city, so they land outside the gates. Opal and Mako have been over their quick escape plan a hundred times. If the crowd gets too wild, Opal will clear a circle around Wu and Kuvira with airbending, the way she and Jinora did for Korra outside of Zaofu, and Mako will ward off anyone who tries to attack them with fire. They do not want to hurt civilians; doing so would probably make the situation worse, but they cannot let any harm come to Wu, and Opal does not want to think about what could happen if the resistance gets their hands on Kuvira.

Su is still on the airship. She insists that, as Kuvira's well-known nemesis, her presence would only make the situation worse, and after what happened in Gaoling, Opal reluctantly agrees.

They walk two-by-two into the city, Mako and Wu in front, Opal with Kuvira two steps behind them. Omashu looks awful. Planks of wood from destroyed stands are scattered in the streets. There are empty holes in the sides of buildings where bricks have been pulled free. Opal does not want to think about how ruined Gaoling must look by now.

"Keep your eyes forward," Kuvira mutters to her out of the corner of her mouth. "It projects strength."

"We don't need to look strong," Opal argues. "We just need to look sincere."

To her frustration, Kuvira chuckles. "I wouldn't have stabilized Ba Sing Se when I was twenty-four by looking _sincere_. Do you think these people care what you _want_ to do? They care what you're _going_ to do." Opal clenches her teeth to keep from firing back a retort. Kuvira is probably right, and it annoys her to no end. After all, Kuvira is the one who is genuinely charismatic and politically savvy. Kuvira is the only one who has done this before.

They climb the steps to the palace to make their speeches. Kuvira introduces Wu almost the exact same way she did in Omashu, and then the Prince speaks. At first, Opal thinks it might actually be okay. An anxious murmur ripples through the crowd when Wu announces his plan to break up the Earth Kingdom, and Opal spots a few people walking away, but a riot does not nearly break out on the spot the way it did in Gaoling. It makes sense, Opal supposes. Omashu has always been more independent than most of the rest of the Earth Kingdom. They had their own king for hundreds of years, up until very recently. Under Wu's plan, day-to-day life will not change much for them.

Then Kuvira steps forward again to call and end to the violence, and the crowd seems to be listening. At the beginning at least. "You're lying!" Someone calls from the back of the crowd when she is barely a minute into her speech. "They're making you say that!" calls another from somewhere else. Plants, Opal realizes. They are plants to incite the crowd. They are part of Kuvira's resistance.

Kuvira plows onward. She seems entirely unfazed by the singular hecklers. And then two men and a woman slightly left of the center of the crowd begin to chant.

_Free Kuvira! Free Kuvira! Free Kuvira!_

The other hecklers join in. It does not seem like it will spread at first, but then the voices grow. Mako shoots her a side look. She glances forward. Kuvira does not look nervous, but that is not surprising, Kuvira is trying to project _strength_. Kuvira has probably buried any anxiety she is feeling. The crowd is growing louder and louder, angrier and angrier. Opal thinks that they are moving toward the steps, or maybe it is just her mind playing tricks on her. Waiting to find out does not seem like a good idea. She gives Mako a quick nod. He shoves the Prince at her and rushes forward, in front of Kuvira. With a twist of her hands, Opal summons a rush of air around them, smaller and weaker than on the one she and Jinora conjured, but she hopes it will be sufficient. The air encompasses Kuvira, and she twists around.

"What are you doing?" she demands. "I had the situation under control."

"No you didn't," Opal answers. "Did you see them? There was no way they were going to let you finish."

Kuvira shakes her head. "You're too jumpy for this job. You have to stay level-headed. Now we look like we're running."

"We are," Opal replies. Outside the wind circle, Mako lights his hands. "Come on. Stay with me." Kuvira rolls her eyes, but nevertheless, she grabs the Prince by the arm and follows Opal through the crowd.

They make it back through the city. On both sides, bricks are flying through windows and buildings are going up in flames. Prince Wu whimpers, his arm still locked securely in Kuvira's hand. Mako bends a ball of flame toward a rioter who runs at them with a rusted pipe. A wave of relief washes through Opal as they approach the city gates.

"How did it go?" Su asks anxiously as soon as they are back on the airship. Opal and Mako are panting. Wu looks like he is about to pass out. Opal doubts that Kuvira's heartrate is even elevated.

"It started out okay," the airbender explains. "But then some people started chanting and agitated the rest of the crowd."

"I was pulled out prematurely," Kuvira growls. "I could have roped them back in—"

"No you couldn't have," Mako interrupts. "Those people were plants. They were dissenters, and they were there to make sure the crowd got worked up so no one would take your speech seriously. There's nothing you could have done.'

Opal turns to her mother. "I thought so too."

Su sighs. "Well, I can't say I'm surprised. I told Tenzin and Lin this plan wouldn't work. We'll just have to go back to Republic City and work out something else."

"But what else are we going to do, Mom?" Opal asks, her brow creased in concern. "They'll go in with an army next. We can't let them do that."

"Again," Wu mutters under his breath, shooting Kuvira a mistrustful look.

"I don't know, Opal," Su answers. "We'll just have to figure it out when we get there, but I'm sure Tenzin won't support sending an army in, and if what happened a month ago is any indication, the Fire Nation won't agree to assist in an invasion either. I don't think President Raiko will take the United Republic to war alone."

"Well, if you don't mind, I'm going to go enjoy my last hours of freedom," Kuvira announces. Opal watches her descend into the ship without another word.

"Mako, why don't you go do the control check," Su suggests. "The walls should at least keep the rioters in, and if they don't, we'll see them coming. There's no hurry. Opal, Prince Wu, we'll take off by sundown. Don't leave the ship."

* * *

"It's my turn to tell a story this time," Korra announces as she and Asami make camp near a small, glistening pond. The sky is fading into blues and purples. Asami does not think she will ever get used to how beautiful it is here.

They set down their bags closer to each other than they did the night before, close enough that Asami can comfortably reach out and rest her hand on Korra's upper arm. Korra grins over at her, covering Asami's hand with her own and squeezing before placing it back on her stomach.

"This is going to be about the first time I went camping," the Avatar continues. "I was seven."

"That's older than I expected you to be," Asami comments.

"Well, I was almost kidnapped by the Red Lotus when I was four, so my parents were kind of protective of me after that." Korra shrugs. "I wasn't allowed to leave the compound."

"Oh right, I almost forgot about the whole… kidnapping thing," Asami admits. "So what happened when you were seven. Why did they suddenly decide it was okay for you to leave?"

"They didn't. I ran away," Korra answers, and Asami laughs.

"Why I am not surprised?"

"Well, the White Lotus was," Korra continues. "I was just starting to learn earthbending—well, to get trained in earthbending, I'd been able to do it for a while—and my instructor was just… I don't know, he was so uptight. He just made me practice standing and being _rooted to the ground_ all day, and he wouldn't even teach me any forms, which just made me angry because I already knew how to earthbend, so clearly standing the right way wasn't a problem." She sighs. "Sometimes I wonder what my training would have been like if I'd been able to travel the world to learn the elements like all the other Avatars. I bet Su would have been a great earthbending teacher. I could have lived in Zaofu. It would have been awesome."

"Your parents were just trying to keep you safe," Asami reminds her. "And, to be fair, you and Aang are the only two Avatars who started learning the other elements before you turned sixteen."

"I know," Korra groans. "I understand. It's just frustrating. I was the only Avatar who was raised in a compound. Even Aang got to travel, and he had an entire nation trying to kill him. Why me?"

Asami smiles sadly. "You'll drive yourself crazy trying to figure out the answer to that question. Trust me."

Korra leans over to press a kiss to her cheek before going on. "So anyway, I decided I was done with that, and one night after dinner, I pretended I was going to bed early and I climbed out the window and bent a hole in the wall, and I left."

"You just set off across the South Pole?" Asami asks, her eyes wide.

"Yeah," Korra answers, as if that is the most normal thing in the world for a seven-year-old to do. Perhaps when you can bend three out of four elements, it is. "I took a change of clothes and some food, wrapped it up in a sheet, and dragged it across the tundra. Eventually I found this cave… sort of. It was more of a crevice in a cliff side. There was this baby polar bear dog inside all alone. I used my bending to make a fire and told her a ghost story, which, I don't know, I think she enjoyed, and then we curled up together and went to sleep."

"Naga?" Asami gasps, and Korra nods.

"Anyway, I guess my parents thought it was kind of suspicious that I went to bed early without complaining, so they went to check on me, and when I wasn't there, they got the White Lotus. It didn't take them long to find the track I left when I was dragging all my supplies. I remember my dad pulling me out of the crevice in the middle of the night. I almost burned him because I didn't know what was happening. I was thought I was being kidnapped by a snow monster or something."

"A snow monster?" Asami repeats, suppressing a laugh.

"I was seven," Korra replies defensively, with a light shove to Asami's shoulder.

"So what happened with Naga?" she asks. "How did you end up keeping her?"

"She followed us back to the compound," Korra answers. "My parents weren't sure at first, but I think they eventually saw the benefit of me having a pet that could tear someone apart. Once it was clear she wasn't going to do that to me."

"You made it sound like you'd been camping a lot," Asami comments.

"I have," the Avatar explains. "After that, my parents realized I needed to get out of the compound occasionally. They took me on some camping trips. We went fishing. When I was older, they started letting me take Naga out on my own. Once I was the same age Aang was when he fought the Fire Lord, it was hard for the White Lotus to argue that I couldn't handle taking a walk by myself."

"Where was Katara in all this?"

Korra sighs. "I don't know if she was ever _really_ for keeping me isolated. I guess after the Red Lotus tried to kidnap me, there wasn't much of a choice, but she understood my frustration. Apparently I reminded her of Lord Zuko when he was younger. I was never sure if that was good or bad."

"It's nice that you had someone you could talk to," Asami says. "Being alone can be hard."

Korra frowns. "Are you talking from experience?"

Asami shrugs. "I was the only child of a widower. I'm not exactly new to overprotective parents. I told you, my dad signed me up for self-defense training when I was pretty young." She grimaces. "In hindsight, he might have hoped I would eventually use it to help him rid the world of benders…"

"He loved you," Korra assures her. "He just lost track of that for a while." Her mindset has changed remarkably since Hiroshi died, and Asami cannot help but wonder if it is sincere or if Korra is simply telling her what will make her feel better because there is no longer a chance that he can hurt them.

"How far are we from Koh?" she asks, changing the subject.

"Well, I don't know exactly where he is," Korra admits. "But I sort of recognized the area in one of the drawings, and we're headed that way. Probably another day."

"Okay," Asami yawns. "Wake me up if you need anything.. I'm serious, Korra. I want to help you."

Korra sighs. "Fine. But the same goes for you. If you're awake, I want to be awake too."

Asami nods. "That sounds fair." It sounds balanced. "Goodnight, Korra." She falls asleep with her hand still resting on the Avatar's arm.

* * *

Mako runs onto the bridge only minutes after takeoff with the words, "Su, there's a problem."

"What is it?" Su asks, turning around. They have run checks on all their systems and took off without a hitch. None of the rioters even left the city. She cannot imagine what could be going wrong, but, to be honest, she is not particularly surprised that something is.

"We can't find Kuvira," Mako answers, out of breath. "Her chambers look… well, they don't look good."

"Come on" Su does not wait for him to say another word. She brushes past him off the bridge and hurries down two decks to the room where Kuvira has been staying. Opal is standing in the middle of the floor looking angry but completely baffled. The room itself is a mess. The blankets have all been pull from the bed and strewn across the room, the mattress is crooked on its frame, and one of the legs has been broken off of the bedside table and is nowhere in sight.

"What happened here?" she murmurs.

"That's what we're trying to figure out," Mako answers. "These are signs of a struggle, and Kuvira is nowhere to be found, but we sealed up the airship as soon as we brought her back."

"Mom, Mako, look at this," Opal calls. She crouches beside the overturned beside table and pushes it out of the way. "The vent."

"Yeah, what about it?" Mako asks as he makes his way over.

"The screws are loose," the airbender replies. "And the plate is dented. She must have crawled through it."

"I don't think she crawled," Mako sighs. Opal turns to look at him. "I think she was dragged."

"You think she was kidnapped?" Opal raises her eyebrows. "She knew she was about to go back to prison. She had every reason to escape, especially in a city where her resistance is so powerful. She probably metalbent the screws back into place when she was in the vent so we wouldn't figure out what happened right away. It all makes sense."

"Opal, look at this room," Mako argues. "There was clearly a fight."

"She could have done it herself to throw us off her trail," Opal insists.

"Opal," Su speaks for the first time since she first entered the room. "I know you don't trust Kuvira, and you have a good reason not to, but I think Mako is right. Tearing the room apart would have cost her time. If she'd left the room untouched, she could have put more distance between herself and the ship before we realized she was missing, and it would have taken us longer to figure out that something was wrong."

"And if she was planning on escaping and joining the resistance, she probably wouldn't have protected Wu when we were leaving Omashu," Mako adds. "Staging another coup would be a lot easier if he'd died."

"Then who do you think did this?" Opal asks tersely, crossing her arms.

"The resistance," Mako answers. "They probably thought if they freed her, she would serve as their leader again."

"They were probably right," Opal mutters.

"We have to go back to the city," Su decides. "Once we get back there, it won't take long to find out if Kuvira has taken charge again. And we need to radio Tenzin. He'll get the word to President Raiko and the rest of the world leaders. Mako, have you seen Prince Wu since we took off?"

"He's asleep in his _royal chambers_ ," Mako answers with a roll of his eyes.

"Go make sure he's alright," Su tells him. "I want him with one of us at all times until we find out what happened. I'm going to find out if Lin can bring another airship down from Republic City to pick him up. I don't like having the only heir to the Earth Kingdom's throne in the middle of an anti-monarchial rebellion."

Su runs a hand through her hair as Mako leaves. Hesitantly, Opal takes a step forward. "This wasn't your fault, Mom."

Su shakes her head. "Kuvira was released to me. She was my responsibility."

"And if it was up to you, we'd be back in Republic City and she'd be in prison right now," Opal answers. "Tenzin and Aunt Lin pushed you to bring her here."

Su nods, but it is not just guilt that she is struggling with. As confused as she is by it, she is worried about Kuvira. She knows that it is unlikely the resistance will kill her, but if Kuvira refuses to reclaim her position, they could use force to persuade her. Su raised Kuvira, and even if she admits to herself that she never _really_ thought of her as a daughter, she is worried like a mother would be.

* * *

By the time they sit down to eat, Korra and Asami have climbed down into a canyon and crossed a wide river with water so red that it looks like blood. "Do you remember when we were looking for Xai Bau's Grove?" Korra asks as they settle down under a tree near the river's edge. "And then we realized it was in the spirit world?"

"When we had that stakeout at the Misty Palms Oasis right before the Earth Queen's forces caught up to us," Asami recalls. "Of course. How could I forget?"

"Well, this is it," Korra gestures around them. "This is where I met Zaheer. Right under this tree."

"Oh." The engineer's eyes widen. "Do you want to go somewhere else?"

Korra shakes her head. "I think it will be nice to actually have some good memories here." Asami smiles at her, and it is infectious.

Xai Bau's grove is strangely beautiful, Korra realizes now. The sky is a warm orange, and it reflects through the leaves on the trees to make them look like they are glowing a deep red. She understands why it appealed to Zaheer. It produces a strong feeling of connection with nature. It exudes tranquility. Korra imagines that must be exactly what a deeply spiritual man who spent thirteen years in a stone prison would want.

Asami spreads jam on a slice of bread and hands it to her. "I had a dream last night." Korra looks at her with interest, but she knits her brows together when she sees Asami's frown. "It was a nightmare."

"I told you to wake me up," Korra reminds her.

" _I_ didn't wake up," Asami explains. "I wish I had."

"So…" Korra picks at her bread. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Asami sighs heavily. "It was about my father." Korra should have known. "I dreamed that he had one of those chi blocker gloves, like the one I kept, surgically implanted into my hand, so that any time I touched someone, it chi blocked them, but then my hand started trying to strangle me, and my father was laughing about it. He kept telling me that my hand could sense that I'd turned against our cause, so I went to you for help, but as soon as you touched my hand to try to get it off me, your bending was gone."

"That sounds… disturbing," Korra comments, at a loss for what else to say. Her own nightmares are not much better. It is unnerving how a person's mind can turn against them in sleep, when they are at their most vulnerable.

"And then when I woke up I was angry at myself for dreaming about him that way, because he did the right thing in the end."

"He saved us," Korra agrees, reaching out to take Asami's hand. "But you can't help what you dream about." She recalls a particularly terrifying night in the South Pole when she dreamed that Zaheer had killed Tenzin and was wearing his skin as a disguise to get close to her.

"Usually I'm just watching him die," Asami explains. "It's never the same way he actually died, but I always see it happen, and it always looks painful. This was worse."

"Asami, how often do you have nightmares?" Korra asks. Of course the engineer has mentioned them before, and even if she hadn't, Korra would have assumed, but she has never made it sound this troubling. Everyone knew what Korra was going through after her fight with Zaheer. Asami has been nearly silent.

She shrugs. "I don't know. Every other night?"

"What? Why didn't you tell me?" Korra cries.

"It didn't seem important."

"Asami, you just gave me a lecture about this yesterday," Korra points out, and Asami drops her eyes.

"I know," she answers. "I didn't keep it from you on purpose. This was the first one I've had since we… got together, and it just never really seemed like something I needed to mention before. I wasn't waking up screaming or anything. It just made going to sleep kind of unpleasant."

Korra squeezes her hand and offers her a smile. "Well, I'm glad I know," she replies. "You'll have them less often as time goes on. I bet everyone's having nightmares right now. We've all be through a lot. You're father died in front of you, Mako was electrocuted, Ikki and Meelo saw Tenzin and Jinora get struck down in mid-flight…"

"It's amazing that we all came out of it alive," Asami agrees. "And if we're all adults, I can imagine what Aang and his friends must have gone through after they ended the war."

"Katara told me she used to have nightmares," Korra answers. "One time I fell asleep in her healing hut because I was up all night the night before, and when she woke me up, I panicked. Once she calmed me down, she told me about it. She said she used to have nightmares about Princess Azula." Asami tilts her head and Korra continues. "You know, because Katara took over for Lord Zuko after he was struck by lightning during their agni kai. Apparently, Princess Azula was already pretty unhinged when they arrived, but when Katara defeated her, she completely fell apart and started sobbing and shrieking and breathing fire. Katara said she heard Princess Azula crying in her dreams for years afterward." She wraps her arm around the engineer's shoulders. "You're not alone."

"Thank you," Asami answers. "But I hope this doesn't last years. I don't know how many more times I can watch him die. I don't know how many more times I can see him the way he was with the equalists."

"I didn't know how many more times I could face Zaheer," Korra answers. "I never wanted to sleep again, and I bet Katara didn't either, but you get through it. It gets easier with time."

Asami nods. She glances at the barely touched slice of bread in Korra's hand. "Eat your lunch. We should get moving again."

* * *

Kuvira is being carried somewhere. That is the first thing she registers when she regains consciousness. The second is a blinding pain in her shoulder.

She is slung over someone's shoulder, staring at the ground. It is dark, and she thinks they are inside. She moves to call the earth into an attack, but nothing happens. Instead, she feels the sudden nothingness that comes with missing a step in the dark. It hurts to move her left arm.

Suddenly, she is falling. She lands on her back on something soft. A bed. This room is brighter, the wall lined with eerie green crystals. For the first time, she gets a look at the man who was carrying her. He is well-muscled and wearing a green shirt that looks like it was probably nice when it was new with white pants. The only thing that distinguishes him from the everyday citizens of Omashu is a crudely-bent metal shoulder guard, the kind her soldiers used to wear. He is a member of the resistance. Kuvira is certain.

The woman accompanying him is dressed similarly. Her clothing is the same color, but her shoulder guard looks better made. She is wearing a bulky brown glove with wires sticking out of it in strange places. It looks familiar, but Kuvira cannot quite place it.

There is another woman standing on the opposite side of the bed, who Kuvira thinks must have already been here, because she only heard two sets of footsteps before. She is nearly as tall as the man, slim and clean cut, her hair pulled back into a tight bun. She looks young but severe. Kuvria cannot help but admire it.

"Hello, Great Uniter," the woman says. "My name is Ling Dao. I am the head of your resistance. We're here to help you retake the Earth Kingdom."

Kuvira shakes her head. "I don't want to retake the Earth Kingdom. What did your people do to my shoulder?"

Ling Dao reaches across the bed and holds up the other woman's wrist. "This is a chi blocker glove. It allows us to temporarily take a person's bending. I'm sure Shou didn't want to do it. You must not have given her a choice. I told her to take you at all costs. Unfortunately for you, it uses electricity to block your chi, so it comes with a bit of a… jolt."

"When will I be able to bend again?" Kuvira growls. She feels naked without her bending. Helpless and vulnerable. She can fight in hand to hand combat if she needs to, but her best resource has been stripped from her.

"Soon," Ling Dao answers. "Now, I know you had to say some things to get yourself out of prison. We all understand that, but this isn't a trick. I wasn't hired by Suyin Beifong to find out if you were telling the truth. I really am here for you. I work for you. We want to give you the Earth Nation back."

Kuvira clenches her teeth. The offer is… tempting. More so than she would like to admit.

"The Prince is incompetent. We all know that," Ling Dao continues. "Even the other world leaders know it. And his plan to break up a nation that has been together since the beginning of time is just as brainless as he is. We should be united as one people, just was the other nations are." Kuvira bites the inside of her cheek. "I know you believe that, Great Uniter. It was your entire cause."

"My cause was wrong," Kuvira answers. She no longer knows what to think about a lot of things since Avatar Korra saved her life, but this is one thing of which she is certain. "What I said in Gaoling was true. One person can never hold so much power without becoming corrupted. I am proof of that."

"You were doing what needed to be done," Ling Dao assures her. "You needed to pull all of the provinces together. The dissenters would have fallen into line if the other world leaders had given them time to see the good you were doing."

Kuvira would like to believe it. She wants to blame President Raiko and Tenzin and Prince Wu and Fire Lord Izumi and the Avatar for the way things ended up. It would certainly be easier, but she cannot because she does not like the person she became, and there is no one she can blame for that except herself.

"That's not true," she insists, though it is one of the harder things she has done in her life. "I started out with a noble goal, to make sure my people were taken care off. The early provinces welcomed me, but as time went on, the Earth Nation began to stabilize on its own. The later provinces that I acquired were resistant. They didn't want some stranger coming in and taking everything they built themselves. I understand that, but I was so focused on my ambition by that time that I didn't care. I wanted the Earth Nation united under myself, whether it wanted to be or not. I meant what I said in Gaoling," she repeats. "I started my mission as a uniter, but I ended it as a conqueror, and I am against conquerors."

"Great Uniter," Ling Dao perches herself on the edge of the mattress and reaches for Kuvira's knee. "I want you to understand that we want you at our head, but this revolution is going to happen whether you agree to it or not. We don't want to, but we are prepared to move without you."

"That would be a mistake," Kuvira protests. "The Prince wants to implement elected leaders who can respond to the needs of the people in their province. Doesn't that sound more efficient than one person trying to make decisions on behalf of the entire continent?"

Ling Dao stands up swiftly. "They've brainwashed you."

"No, they haven't," Kuvira assures her. "I just had some time to think while I was in prison. I still want what's best for the Earth Nation. I just know now that that isn't me."

"If you're not brainwashed, you've become weak," Ling Dao snarls in disgust. "Perhaps some more time will make you reconsider. You've been many things Kuvira, but never weak. You've always had the intelligence to know what needed to be done and the courage to make it happen. The people of the Earth Kingdom don't want this, and they are waiting for someone to stand up for them. You can be that person, Great Uniter. Or you can step aside and allow someone else to do it like Suyin Beifong did. The choice is yours. Who do you want to be?"

She turns and leaves the room. "Chi block her again," she calls from down the tunnel. "We don't want her bending her way out."

As Kuvira clenches her teeth and prepares for the shock, she tells herself that Ling Dao was right. She has the intelligence to know what needs to be done. She has the courage to make it happen. And that is what she is doing.

She pinches her mouth shut, and as she glove touches her back, her body shakes and her world goes black.


	6. The One You Love

The land grows more and more desolate as Korra and Asami walk, and a thick fog falls over them. "This looks ominous," Asami comments. Her brow is furrowed in concern. Korra's stomach twists uncomfortably.

"Well, we are going to see a spirit called the Face-Stealer," she replies in an attempt at humor. Anything to lighten the air of gloom that has settled over them. The comment falls flat, and Asami's expression remains unchanged. "Looks like Koh won't be able to steal your face," she adds with a gentle nudge to the other girl's side.

Asami sighs. "I'm sorry Korra, but I'm not really in the mood for jokes right now. I feel like we're walking to our deaths."

Korra grimaces. The feeling is not exactly new for her. She has looked danger in the eye and taken the step forward, on her own, knowing that she could be killed an any moment, several times before, but Asami has not. The engineer has risked her life many times, but she has never exactly had time to think about it the way Korra did when she traded herself in to the Red Lotus or met Kuvira outside Zaofu. She reaches for Asami's hand and finds it damp with sweat. Asami glances over at her apologetically.

"Not we," Korra answers. "Just me."

Asami stops without warning, jerking Korra by the arm when she does not notice and continues walking. "What do you mean, just you?"

"There's no reason for both of us to go in there." Korra places her other hand on her shoulder and rolls it out. "It will be harder for Koh to steal someone's face if he has fewer faces to choose from."

Asami crosses her arms. "And you've just decided that person should be you?"

"Well, they are my past lives." Korra shrugs. "And I'm more familiar with spirits. It just makes sense for me to be the one to talk to him."

Asami sighs. "I know you have to go in." She takes Korra's hand in her own again. "I just don't want you to be alone in there."

Korra squeezes her hand. "I don't want you going in there at all. What if something happened and he stole your face, when we were supposed to be on vacation, and you didn't even have to be there in the first place? I would never forgive myself."

"I thought you said he'd never be able to steal my face," Asami teases as they start walking through the dirt and fog and twisted, dead trees again.

"You know I was just trying to get you to laugh at me," Korra answers with a grin.

Asami smirks at her, and the Avatar does not think she likes the expression on her face. "So you really _don't_ trust me to control my emotions."

Korra frowns. "Hey, that's not fair. You tricked me."

"If I can trick you, maybe I can trick Koh," Asami replies. "That's why I should come with you."

"He's a tens of thousands of lifetimes-old spirit," Korra points out. "Do you really think we'd be able to trick him?"

Asami shrugs. "I'm pretty smart. You are too. We'd think of something."

They come to the edge of a wide, fog-filled ravine. Korra leans over the drop off carefully, but it is impossible to see the bottom or the other side. All she can see are swirling tufts of white air, like they are standing in the clouds.

"Look," Asami says, pointing across the canyon. "Is that it?" Korra follows her gaze over a line of rock pillars sticking out of the fog like fingers, to a knotted old tree. "It looks just like the Tree of Time."

"If the Tree of Time had an evil twin," Korra mutters. "That's got to be it. Let's go." Without waiting for the engineer to ask how exactly she plans on getting them across the ocean of fog, Korra wraps her arm around the other girl's waist and launches them onto the nearest stone finger on a gust of air.

They reach the island supporting the tree in seven leaps. Korra can see an opening among the roots. It makes the hair on the back of her neck stand up. "Koh's lair," Asami breathes beside her, and she nods. She feels a hand clamp around her arm, and when she looks up in surprise, Asami is staring at her fiercely. "I'm going with you," she insists. "You're not going in there alone." Korra knows there is no point in arguing. Asami's mind is made up, just like it was when Korra questioned whether it was a good idea to be speaking with her father again.

"Okay," she nods. Now that they are here, her stomach is in her throat. It reminds her of the way she felt when she went to see Zaheer in prison. Facing Koh did not seem like a big deal back at Wan Shi Tong's library, or even when they made camp, but things are different now. The severity of the danger she is about to face is creeping up on her. "But I'll kill you if you get your face stolen."

"Please do," Asami answers, and Korra is horrified that she is not sure if it is a joke. She glances back at the opening. It is too dark to see anything inside, save for small swatches where light peaks in through the roots of the tree. There is a clenching feeling in her abdomen, like she is about to walk into the gaping mouth of a beast. She turns back to Asami, reaches to curl her fingers behind her neck, and pulls their mouths together.

It is only their third kiss, and it is still new. As Asami slides her arms behind Korra's back, she wishes there was not an unnatural coldness sweeping over her, wishes they were not standing in the shadow of a tree so twisted it could not have grown that way naturally. She wishes they were not possibly walking to their deaths. Every part of her wants to tell herself that Aang did this when he was twelve, and it should be easy for her, but there is a nagging voice in the back of her brain telling her to cut her losses and go back to enjoying their vacation without all this unnecessary risk. She has gotten along for years without her other lives. She can make due. But Korra knows it is not that simple, because this isn't just about her. This is about her next life and the life after that. This is about future Avatars who will be in need of guidance and whom she will have cheated out of advice gathered over a thousand lifetimes.

They break apart and Asami smiles sadly. "I hope we get to do that again."

"We will," Korra tells her, though she does not feel as certain as she sounds. "Get ready to not feel anything. Try to channel my cousins." She takes the other girl's hand… her girlfriend's hand?… and, without a backward glance, descends into the cave.

* * *

"How could you lose Kuvira?" President Raiko storms on the other end of the radio. Prince Wu looks torn between terror and indignation, Opal crosses her arms angrily, and a Mako simply rolls his eyes.

"We were doing what _your people_ told us to do!" Su argues, though it kills her to refer to her sister and Tenzin as Raiko'speople. "I told them it was a bad idea! I told them what happened in Gaoling! They didn't care!"

On the other end of the line, she can hear Raiko sigh. The bridge of the airship falls into an uncomfortable silence until finally, Mako says what they are all thinking. "Well we have to rescue her right? I mean, we can't just leave her with the rebels."

"Who says it'll be a rescue," Opal mutters.

"Yes," Raiko adds over the radio. "We can't ignore the possibility that Kuvira might be working with the people who freed her. I'm beginning to regret allowing you to go along with this plan."

"It wasn't _my_ plan in the first place," Su growls. Tenzin. This is Tenzin's fault. Tenzin wanted to release Kuvira from prison. Tenzin wanted them to go to Omashu. Tenzin is far too trusting, and Su has never held more animosity toward the airbender in her life. Or toward anyone, for that matter, except maybe her sister when she was a teenager.

Another heavy sigh from Raiko. "I'll send forces down there to relieve you—"

"No!" Su interrupts. "How do you think that will look to the rioters? Like the United Republic is invading Omashu?"

"She's right, Sir," Mako interjects to Su's surprise. Perhaps he is worth more to them than she has been giving him credit for. "You can't be the world's police. You don't have a large enough military."

"Let us handle it." Su glances around at her daughter, the Prince, and his bodyguard. "We've got this."

"I'll take your word for it," Raiko replies warily. "For now. But I expect twice daily status reports, and I'll be in touch with the rest of the world leaders to evaluate our additional options." And Su realizes with a jolt of horror that he plans to take the United Republic to war with the rebellion if he can gather the allies, though she hopes desperately that Tenzin and Fire Lord Izumi will stand by their earlier positions. Waterbenders will be useless for a war in the deserts of the Earth Kingdom. Without support of the Fire Nation or the airbenders, Mako is right. Raiko will not have enough military power for an attack.

"Do we actually have this, Mom?" Opal asks as soon as the President is off the line.

Su supports herself on the control panel and presses her hand to her forehead. "I hope so." There is something nudging her side, and then her daughter's arms are around her, just like when she was a child and she used to hug Su around the leg after a day of playing with her brothers in the fields at the base of the domes.

"We need a plan," Mako says after a moment. Su turns, her arm still around Opal, to find him pacing across the bridge. The Prince's head is moving back and forth like he is watching a game of power disc. "We need to know where they're keeping her and we need to come up with a way to get into the city unseen. Everyone knows who Su is, and they saw the rest of us with Kuvira earlier."

"Oh, I know!" the Prince exclaims. "We should wear disguises." He makes his thumb and index fingers into circles around his eyes. "Like masks. And capes. And we can tell them I'm a music sensation, and you guys are my entourage." He claps his hands together enthusiastically. "It's barely even a lie!"

"No." Mako frowns at him. "And you're not coming anyway. You're staying right here on the airship, where they can't get to you."

"I think they've proven that's not true," Opal points out.

"I'll melt the bolts on the vents in your chambers in place," Mako explains. "You're going to lock yourself in, and you're not going to open the door until one of us tells you to. You're the last viable heir to the Earth Kingdom's throne."

"I guess you're right," Wu sighs. "I'm just too important to risk myself. What would my people do without me?"

"Reinstate Kuvira," Opal answers, and Su gives her a sharp poke in the shoulder.

"Well, we have three different kinds of benders," Mako points out, turning to the two women. "There has to be a way."

"There is," Su replies firmly. "We just have to find it."

Perhaps if she says it with enough confidence, it will be true.

* * *

Korra grasps Asami tightly with one hand and holds a small, flickering flame in the other. She can hear movement. Asami's pulse quickens against her palm, and Korra looks over her shoulder once more to make sure that her companion still has a face.

"Hello?"she calls, her eyes focusing on the small patches illuminated by light peaking through the roots of the tree overhead. "Is there someone named Koh here?"

There is a scuttling sound to her left, and then a white and red-painted face appears in front of her. Her eyes widen slightly, but she is careful to keep her expression neutral. "Welcome." His voice is deep, unnaturally so, and impossibly clear.

"Uhh, thank you," she answers. "I'm—"

"The Avatar," the spirit finishes. "Yes, I know you. Last time you were here, you didn't remember me either. How easily humans forget."

"I don't know anything about my past lives," Korra replies, relieved that she is able to cut to the chase so quickly. "I lost contact with them three years ago."

"Really," Koh says. The face that is looking at Korra smirks. "How intriguing. Allow me to tell you about them. Your previous life was likeable enough. You needed information about Tui and La. Surely you know of them. You came to me because I am one of the few spirits old enough to remember. Without my help, there would be no you."

The eyes flit down to Korra and Asami's joined hands, and Korra has an urge to frown and make herself look threatening, but she resists. He turns away from her and continues his story. "It must have been seven hundred years since the time I saw you before that. You _tried to slay me!_ " He turns back on Korra and comes at her quickly, now displaying the face of an angry-looking Fire Nation man with a mustache. Korra blinks and recoils, but her face remains impassive. The hand locked in Asami's is beginning to throb, but Korra cannot tell which of them is squeezing too tightly.

"Why did I do that?" she asks.

Koh switches to the face of a young woman that Korra recognizes as Water Tribe. Her hair grows so long that Korra is certain it must have reached past her waist and flutters in a non-existent breeze. "I stole the face of the one you loved." His voice is smooth, scheming. His body coils around Asami like a snake's, coming between them. Korra wants to yell at him to leave her alone, but she does not trust herself. She cannot allow her emotions, bubbling furiously just below the surface, to betray her. The Water Tribe woman's face is so close to Asami that their noses are nearly touching. Asami looks completely calm, bored even, but Korra can feel her fear in her clenched hand. "Not since have I added a face this beautiful and… fragile to my collection. Is _this_ the one _you_ love, Avatar?"

"Umm, I…" Korra is absolutely positive that Asami does not care what she says right now, but that does not save her from tripping over her words. "I think I… umm…"

"Ah, _new_ love," Koh deduces, his voice wicked. "When you have been here as long as I have, little is new anymore. Faces. Only faces."

"That must get boring," Korra answers, desperate to shift the subject off of Asami.

"Perhaps," he replies, unwrapping himself from around the engineer and looking at Korra once more, this time with the face of an elderly man. "But we're not here to talk about me, are we, Avatar? We're here to talk about you. Tell me, do you have another problem you need me to solve?"

"I do need your help," she answers, grateful that he has finally turned away from her companion. "I need to know how to reconnect to my past lives. I was separated from them by Unalaq… umm, Vaatu… the dark Avatar at harmonic convergence. I heard that he must have absorbed them, and since spiritual energy never really goes away, that they must be out there somewhere. I thought, since you've been around so long, you might have some idea where?"

"I do not," Koh answers, and Korra struggles to keep the disappointment off her face. Now that she knows those spirits are still existent, she feels so close to being reunited with them, but they are always just out of her grasp. "But I know where you can find the answer."

"Where?" she hears Asami asks quickly. Korra looks over in surprise.

"The spirit you are looking for is my polar opposite," he tells them as he turns away. "We stopped seeing eye to eye many thousands of lifetimes ago. I no longer speak her name. She undoes my work, and I undo hers. It is a cycle. One of us could not survive without the other."

"Then how am I supposed to find her?" Korra asks.

"You have already met her. It was not long ago, for me at least," Koh continues. "You may not remember, but there are other ways to access memories. Especially for you, Avatar."

"The Tree of Time," Korra murmurs. Koh rounds on her again, his face that of a curly-tailed blue nose. "Sorry," she clears her throat. "Umm, thanks for all your help. We have to be going. It's, you know, getting late. Well, it's really not, because time doesn't really exist here. Well, it sort of does—"

"Thank you," Asami cuts in. "You've been very helpful." She pulls Korra toward the exit, looking back over her shoulder every so often until the reach the opening of the cave.

"I look forward to your next face, Avatar," Korra hears from behind them as the warmth of sunlight washes over their skin. "It is always a point of curiosity which one you'll bring to me next."

* * *

Kuvira has yelled her throat nearly raw, passed out from exhaustion, and refused to eat two meals by the time she is removed from her cell. Her back and shoulders are tender from being chi blocked often enough to assure that she does not regain her ability to bend. What the woman at the prison did was uncomfortable. This electrocution is brutal.

Shou and a scrawny, eager-looking man that Kuvira does not recognize lead her out of her cell, up a long spiral staircase to an open air room overlooking the city. Beyond the walls, she can see the airship still tied in the distance.

Su hasn't left. They'll come for her.

"I thought you could use some sunlight and fresh air," Ling Dao calls to her. She is seated comfortably on a long, purple velvet cushion that Kuvira knows once belonged to King Bumi, who never cared much for the national colors. "It's a good thing you're not a firebender. We'd have to keep you locked in the dark until you came around." She shakes her head. "You understand, I just can't take chances with you." She surveys Kuvira for a moment in silence before gesturing to the cushion opposite her. "Sit. Eat."

Kuvira sinks down and glances down at the bench between them. It is stacked with plates of roast duck, hibiscus root salad, and egg custard tarts. "We even have cabbage cookies," Ling Dao informs her as Kuvira's gaze rests on a plate at the end, containing something that looks someone tried to bread and bake leaves. "An Omashu delicacy."

Kuvira looks up at her. The other woman studies her, but Kuvira studies her back, each impenetrable under the other's cool gaze. "What's this about?"

Ling Dao shrugs innocently. "I just wanted to speak with you again, try to understand your views, see if I can persuade you."

"You can't," Kuvira insists. "I no longer have a desire to rule, especially not the way you want me to."

Ling Dao shakes her head. "I see you've fallen into your old mentor's way of thinking," she replies. "You've been spending too much time with her in Republic City. Did she come here with you, Kuvira? Is she in that airship out there? Does she know we can all see it from here?" Ling Dao leans forward intently. "She's distorted your ability to think independently, Kuvira. Prison will do that to a person. It's rather sad."

"She didn't tell me anything," Kuvira growls. "Chief Beifong told me what she wanted me to do and I agreed. That's all there was to it."

"And playing along was an excellent move on your part," Ling Dao replies. "We were having trouble deciding how to break you out of prison. They made it much easier by bringing you to us." She picks a bunch of grapes out of one of the bowls on the bench and pops one into her mouth. "Eat, Kuvira," she instructs. "It's not poisoned, and you look undernourished." She leans back into the cushion.

"They made you believe you were at fault for what happened, when all you were doing was reacting to their hostile actions," she continues, apparently satisfied when Kuvira picks a tart off the plate directly in front of her. "You had to defend yourself. The United Republic was never going to stop trying to remove you from power to install that imbecile Prince. You had to take them out. Suyin Beifong isn't here, Kuvira. You can come back to yourself. There's a reason you left her in the first place. She was holding you back. She was too timid to step up when it mattered. You and I aren't like that. We don't sit idly by."

"I'm not like that," Kuvira answers carefully. "But I'm not like you. I know I'm not what the Earth Nation needs. They need leaders who won't be corrupted and who don't hide behind a wall or in a palace or… behind an army."

"Look out there, Kuvira," Ling Dao points outside. "Look at this city. Do you really think these people need another upheaval, while the Prince fumbles his way through setting up a new government that could take decades to function properly, if it ever does at all? Or do you think they need the person who brought not just stability, but prosperity to them only months after a war that devastated the entire nation for a century? Their Great Uniter."

"I'm not what anyone needs right now," Kuvira answers forcefully. "Maybe the people in Omashu love me, but you should talk to the people in the Yai province or Zaofu. They'll welcome independence. They were practically independent already, before I conquered them. Zaofu was a world leader in technology and culture. I took it out of greed disguised as nationalism."

Ling Dao shrugs. "Omashu was practically independent for hundreds of years," she points out. "That doesn't mean its people won't benefit from being part of a larger Earth Nation."

"They seemed fine with being on their own until your people stirred them up," Kuvira argues, but Ling Dao only raises an eyebrow.

"Kuvira, if they didn't want you back, do you really think we would have been able to insight a riot in a matter of minutes?" She leans across the table to lay a hand atop the other woman's. It feels too heavy, and Kuvira wants to pull away, but she is not stupid. Her cell is sprawling, like a hotel room, and she does not want to make her situation worse over something so trivial. "I know you want what's best for the Earth Nation," Ling Dao tells her. "And I know the Beifongs, President Raiko, and the Avatar have told you something to make you believe that that is not you, but where are they? You are the only one who is here, looking at these people. What do you think is best for them?"

Kuvira tightens her jaw. "To not be ruled by someone who lives on the other side of the continent and has never even been to the city," she pauses, and Ling Dao's lips twitch toward a smile. "Or by someone who invaded a province that was perfectly functional on its own, just because the people who live there bend the same element."

Ling Dao frowns and retracts her hand, shaking her head slowly. "I really thought we could bring you around, Kuvira. I thought you could be our Great Uniter again," she says. "But I guess Suyin Beifong has so tight a hold on your mind that you can't be pried away. It's a shame. You had so much potential." She drops the grapes back in the bowl and stands, so that she is towering above the other woman. "Kuvira, as much as it kills me to have to say this, you are a traitor to our cause, and you will be tried as such at sundown tonight. May the spirits of justice and serenity be with you."

Kuvira is pulled from the room by her arms before she has even had a chance to stand up. The cell she is returned to bears a much greater resemblance to the one she remembers from prison.

* * *

When Korra and Asami finally reach the part of the spirit world where things are actually _living_ , they collapse on the underbrush, their backs against a tree. "That was…" Korra breathes, searching for the right word.

"Terrifying?" Asami supplies.

"I thought it would be easier," Korra admits. "I didn't think he was going to try to get a reaction out of us."

"Well, his entire existence is stealing faces," Asami replies. "That would be a lot harder to do if he wasn't so creepy."

"Yeah, I guess," Korra agrees. She picks Asami's hand off her leg and begins to play with her fingers. "Do you want to make camp here tonight? There's enough distance between us and him, and I don't think he followed us anyway."

"That's not going to stop me from having nightmares about it," Asami sighs. "But I am getting tired." As if to demonstrate her point, she stifles a yawn and drops her head to Korra's shoulder. "I'm really glad nobody lost their face," she adds. "I don't know how I would have explained that to your parents."

"Something tells me they wouldn't have taken it very well," Korra answers. "First I go missing for six months with no explanation. Then I take a vacation into the spirit world without telling them and come back with blank skin where my face used to be."

"We just can't leave you on your own for one second, can we?" Asami jokes, to Korra's relief. They were both silent, trapped in their own thoughts, the entire way back through the eerie, desolate landscape, and it is nice to know that things are starting to go back to normal. "So what do you think Koh meant by his polar opposite?"

"I don't know," Korra sighs, resting her head atop Asami's. "He told me I met her but I don't remember it. What do you think that means?"

"Maybe you met her, but you didn't know it was her?" Asami suggests. "Have you met a lot of female spirits?"

Korra shakes her head. "Only Raava. Well, and a two-headed frog whose wedding reception I was at. But he wanted me to go back to the Tree of Time to figure it out. Maybe I just have to sift through all my memories until I figure it out."

"Wait," Asami shifts her head to look up at her companion, "He said you met her recently _for him_ , and he referred to all the incarnations of the Avatar as the same person. Maybe when he said you met her, he meant in a past life."

"I bet that's it!" Korra exclaims. "I bet I'm supposed to go back to the Tree of Time and access Aang's memories."

Asami furrows her brow. "Can you do that?"

"The Tree of Time stores all memories." Korra shrugs. "I don't see why not, and that is what Koh told me to do."

"Right," Asami replies. "Because he couldn't possibly have been lying."

"I don't think he was," Korra says. "I mean, I know he helped Aang save the moon spirit. That's a household story in the Water Tribes. And I first heard it from Katara and Sokka, so I doubt they embellished it the way most people do. Well, I don't think Sokka actually put an icicle through General Zhao himself, but the essentials are probably right."

"Okay," Asami nods. "We'll go back to the Tree of Time and we'll sort through Aang's memories until we find… what, a spirit who… gives away faces or something?"

"Yeah, something like that," Korra agrees. "And if we don't find it in Aang's memories, we'll try Roku's, and then Kyoshi's." She looks down at the girl beside her. "I should tell you something about my Avatar duties," she adds with a grin. "Half of it is just making things up as I go."

"Well, it's worked pretty well for you so far," Asami answers. She clasps Korra's hand firmly in her own. "Don't worry. We'll figure this out. We've come this far. There's no way I'm letting you leave here without your past lives."

"Thanks, Asami." She brushes her lips to the top of the engineer's head. "Listen, almost losing our faces today got me thinking…" Her fingers twitch in Asami's grasp. This is much harder to say than she thought it would be. "I just wanted you to know how much I care about you. I care about you a lot."

"I know," Asami lifts her head to press a kiss to Korra's cheek. "The feeling is mutual."

"Oh, good," Korra nervously rubs the back of her neck. "I mean, good that you know. Not that it's not good that the feel is mutual, but that's not what I, umm… meant." She can feel her face reddening, and she is grateful that Asami cannot see it.

The engineer squeezes her hand. "It's my turn to tell a story," she comments. "Any suggestions?"

"Oh, I know," Korra grins wickedly, glad to take the focus off her own feelings for the time being. "Your first crush."

Asami laughs. "That's easy. Okay, well, when I was fourteen, I went to this expensive private school in Republic City, and there was this teacher there, a math teacher. He was a little older, his hair was starting to turn grey, but he had this daughter, Meina. She was a couple years above me, but she was just gorgeous. She was an earthbender. I think she moved to Ba Sing Se to expand her mother's company after she left school. I wonder if she made it through the coup alright…" she trails off in thought. "What about you?" she asks. "Who was your first crush?"

Korra sighs. "Mako."

"Really?" Asami draws back to look at her. "That late? You were seventeen. Mako wasn't even my first boyfriend."

"I was raised in a compound," Korra answers defensively. "I didn't have a lot of exposure to people my own age until I came to Republic City. My best friend was a polar bear dog."

Asami shrugs. "Fair enough. I was just expecting to hear about some stud from the Southern Water Tribe or something. That's all."

"Sorry to disappoint you," the Avatar replies, though she is smiling.

Asami wraps her arm around Korra's shoulders and squeezes. "I guess that explains why you didn't see ahead of time the trouble that going on a date with someone and then immediately kissing his brother could cause, huh?"

"I do feel bad about that now," Korra admits, allowing herself to be drawn into the embrace, weighing against Asami's side.

"I'm sure Bolin's over it," the other girl assures her. "I'm just glad we all got through it still friends."

"Me too," Korra agrees. "Otherwise, I'd probably be making this trip with Tenzin and his kids. I mean, I love them, but one meticulously scheduled vacation was enough for me. This is much better than that."

Asami pokes her in the ribs. "I'm glad you'd rather take a vacation with me than your airbending teacher."

Korra considers defending herself, but after the day they have both had, she would rather just to listen Asami laugh.


	7. Treason In the Earth Nation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about that wait, guys. I took a break from writing, and then when I came back, I forgot to post to this site. I just want to remind everyone that this story is cross-posted to ff.net, where it is up to chapter 9. I never forget to post there, so if there's another long break, it might be worth it to check. Sorry again!

"Did you see anything?" Su asks urgently as soon as Opal hits the ground. She has been flying around the city for over an hour looking for Kuvira or a group of resisters or anything that looks like a functional prison, looking for anything that does not leave them so in the dark.

"There were a lot of people gathered around the palace," Opal replies. "But I couldn't see anything inside. Everything else looks pretty normal."

"The rebels might be using the palace as their headquarters," Su mutters, more to herself than to her daughter. "It's been empty for years."

"Do you think that's where Kuvira's being kept?" Opal asks a little too anxiously for someone who claims to hate Kuvira as much as she does. Having the former dictator around has reminded Su of what things were like when she still lived Zaofu, when she was almost a part of the family, things that were so easy to forget when Kuvira was off conquering the Earth Nation and turning her son against her. Perhaps Opal feels the same way. They were once very close.

"It could be," Su answers. "She's a powerful bender. It must be taking a lot of people to keep her under control. You didn't see any groups of guards hanging around anywhere else?"

Opal chuckles, despite the frown on her face. "Only at the Dizzy Pig."

"What's the Dizzy Pig?" Su furrows her brow.

"A drag club near the wall," the airbender answers. "I don't think they're hiding her in there. Do you?"

"It doesn't seem likely," Su agrees, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips. If there is one thing that humanizes the enemy, it is seeing what they do when they do not think anyone else is looking, but she shakes the thought from her head. To get Kuvira back, she may have to hurt people, teenagers who got caught up in a revolution because it seemed exciting, and she will have to do it without a second thought. Just like the Fire Nation soldiers who tried repeatedly to kill her mother when she was twelve.

"Is there any news?" Mako asks, pulling his feet from the end table and sitting up straight when Su and Opal enter the lounge. Prince Wu is at a table behind him with needles and thread, an impressive gold and green scarf spread across his lap.

"Aside from what kind of entertainment the soldiers enjoy?" Opal raises an eyebrow. Su sits down on the couch across from him and Opal perches on its arm.

"We think they're holding Kuvira in the palace," Su answers. "According to Opal, it's surrounded by revolutionaries, the only place in the city where they're highly concentrated."

"Almost," Opal mutters, clearly finding the whole situation more entertaining than, in Su's opinion, she should.

"I don't know how we'll get passed them," Su adds. "If we had the blueprints, I could tunnel us in, but for all we know, we'll be coming up in the middle of the war room. That palace is so old, I doubt blueprints for it even exist anymore."

"Wasn't Grandma with Avatar Aang when he got held there?" Opal asks, narrowing her eyes. "She didn't tell you about it?"

Su shakes her head, though it would have been remarkably convenient. Her mother had a knack for describing the layouts of buildings in deadening detail. "That was before she met him." Then her eyes widen. "But Katara and Sokka were there. Maybe Tenzin knows."

"Or Dad," Opal points out. "He's an architect. He likes buildings. He might have remembered."

Su claps her daughter on the shoulder. "Let's go radio your father," she replies. She turns to the firebender lounging on the opposite couch. "Mako, are you coming?"

Mako recovers from his surprise and jumps up from the couch, pulling the Prince out of the room behind him.

Baatar is back in Zaofu with Huan, Wing, and Wei, and it takes Su four tries to get ahold of him. "Hello?" They all heave a sigh of relief as his voice finally crackles through the speaker.

"Dad!" Opal exclaims, seizing the intercom from her mother.

"Hi, honey," Baatar answers. "How's your mission going." Opal's face falls and her shoulders slump.

"Not good," she replies darkly. "Kuvira got kidnapped. We think. That's why we need you."

"Kidnapped?" Baatar exclaims so loudly that static rushes through the speaker. "How did that happen? What can I do to help? And here I thought you were calling because you missed me."

"Kidnapped?" Someone asks in the background. "Who?" They can hear garbled voices conversing and then Baatar comes back on the line.

"Wing sends his best," he explains. "And Huan says something about a night sky and a dark abyss. I'm sure I won't do it justice if I try to repeat it."

"Honey, we need to know about the palace in Omashu," Su tells him. "That's where we think they're holding her."

"Omashu?" Baatar asks. Su can almost see him scratching his head in puzzlement. "I've never been there."

"Didn't your father spend some time in the palace?" Su presses. "With his sister and the Avatar?"

"I believe he did," her husband answers. "He didn't tell me much about it. The only stories I really heard from before your mother joined them are the Siege of the North and when he met Mom."

"He never mentioned where they were kept?" Su asks, trying to keep the disappointment from her voice.

"Hmm," Baatar murmurs. "I think they were underground? There were some crystals involved somehow. And a goat gorilla named Flopsie, but I doubt he's still alive. I don't think they live much longer than fifty or sixty years."

"That's okay," Su sighs. "Maybe Tenzin will know. His father and King Bumi were close. I bet he's heard the story more than once."

"Well, that wasn't very helpful," Mako mutters after Baatar hangs up and Opal replaces the transmitter on the control panel with a quiet click.

"He takes after his father," Su replies sharply. "The brilliant but slightly scatterbrained engineer who helped Avatar Aang end a war." Mako's face falls. Opal snickers.

"Baatar is Sokka's son?" the firebender narrows his eyes like he does not quite believe it, and Su suppresses the urge to roll hers.

"That surprises you?"

"I just…" he studies the nicks in the floor, "didn't know Sokka had any children. That's all."

"They didn't live together," Su informs him. "Sokka was always going back and forth between Republic City and the Water Tribes. Baatar grew up in Ba Sing Se with his mother."

"But Grandma and Grandpa still loved each other very much," Opal adds. "They moved to Kyoshi Island together after they retired."

"Why didn't she live in Republic City or the Southern Water Tribe?" Mako asks.

"The Earth King offered her a job as head of the Dai Li when she aged out of the Kyoshi Warriors," Su answers. "She wasn't going to turn that down. I can't imagine deciding to break the family up was easy, but wanting to work? That I can understand."

"What does this button do?" Prince Wu asks from the corner, his gaze fixed on the a large red button that, in Su's opinion, screams "Press me," even at responsible adults.

"Don't touch that!" Mako yells, seizing his arm and pulling him away. "It's the emergency release. It makes the floor drop out."

"Mom," Opal turns to her, a face forming into a worried expression. "What if Kuvira really wasn't kidnapped? What if she is working with the resistance?"

Su rests a reassuring hand on her daughter's shoulder. "That's a risk I'm willing to take."

* * *

"Korra, do you know where we are?" Asami asks. They have been walking all day, and now they are in a forest. One of the many forests in the spirit world. "I don't recognize this."

"I know where we are," Korra assures her, though she is not positive that is true. She has been in this forest before, but last time, she got here because the ground swallowed her and then Iroh lead her out. She decides against mentioning that to Asami.

"I think we've passed that giant mushroom before." The engineer gestures to a large pink fungus growing through the roots of a tree.

"Nah," Korra replies with a wave of her hand. "Those things are all over the place. We're fine."

"I'm serious, Korra," Asami sighs. "Look at this tree. We're been through here already." Korra tilts her head toward the tree. There is something carved into the trunk—she squints her eyes—an extremely symmetrical heart surrounding a tidy little "A + K."

"Aww," she smirks. "Did you do that?"

Asami rolls her eyes. "No, Korra. I'm not twelve." She takes her hand and leads her closer to the tree. "See how it's healing over?" She runs her fingers across the scarred bark, and Korra follows her lead, their fingertips brushing. "This has been here for a while."

"Hmm." Korra furrows her brow in thought. Then her eyes widen. "I know who left it! A and K! I bet it stands for Aang and Katara!"

Asami looks mildly entertained. "Huh." She brings a hand to her chin in thought. "I never noticed we shared their initials."

Korra snorts, backing away from the tree and crouching to see if she can spot a second set of their footprints in the earth. "Some super genius. Come on, smarty pants. If you're so sure we're lost, help me figure out where we are."

"Why don't we just ask for directions?" Asami asks. Her voice is quieter and more distant that Korra expects it to be, and she can immediately tell that something is wrong. When she looks up, Asami is face to face with a gigantic creature with eight legs, eight eyes, and pincers. Korra feels the color drain from her face. It is a scorpion spider spirit.

"Asami," she whispers urgently. "Back this way. Slowly." She has heard the story dozens of times. Tenzin, Kya, and Bumi all tell it differently, but it always ends the same way. They get thrown into the Fog of Lost Souls. Korra has never been there, but she knows enough about it to know that it is not where she wants to spend her vacation.

Asami takes a step back and then another, and for a moment, Korra thinks that things might be okay. Asami will make it to her, and then she can rush them away on an air scooter. Then the spirit lunges.

Korra does not think, just acts. She jumps in front of Asami on a gust of air, fire spitting from her hands at the scorpion spider.

"You dare bend at me?" the spirit cries in anger. "I'd have thought you'd know better by now, _Avatar_." It points its stinger at them, and before Korra has time to defend them, they are tangled in webbing, the fronts of their bodies pressed together, being lifted into the air upside down. The creature tisks. "You humans prove again and again, there is only one place for you in the spirit world."

And then they are on the ground with a thud, dragging across twigs and leaves. Asami is grimacing, a branch the size of her wrist dragging from her hair. Korra's chin keeps knocking against the base of the engineer's neck, and Korra is certain it will bruise.

"Where is it's taking us?" Asami whispers, her voice filled with a mixture of fear and curiosity.

"The Fog of Lost Souls," Korra answers. "At least, that's where it took Tenzin, Kya, and Bumi. I think this is the same spirit," she adds uncertainly. "It looks like what they described. Well, Bumi said it had ten stingers and fangs the size of an airbending gate, but between you and me, I don't think that was true—"

"The Fog of Lost Souls, Korra?" Asami asks. Now she actually does sound afraid, and Korra would like to hug her, but her arms might as well be tied to her sides. "What's that?"

"Well it's this canyon, filled with really thick fog, and you get lost in the fog and slowly lose your mind and become trapped in your darkest memories," she replies conversationally. "I guess the fog is a spirit. That's what Tenzin said. Kya and Bumi wouldn't talk about it."

"I can't go in there," Asami hisses. She sounds nearly panicked now, and Korra realizes how difficult it will be for Asami to keep her darkest memories out of her thoughts in the fog when they are at the forefront of her mind on a regular basis. She realizes it because she has struggled with the same thing.

"Okay, you're right," she agrees. "We have to get out of here."

Asami struggles against the webbing. "Can't you burn through it or something?" she asks, and Korra frowns.

"Don't you think I've tried that?"

"Okay, okay," Asami answers. "No need to get testy."

Korra sighs. "I'm sorry. This vacation is just… not going how I pictured it going at all." Korra supposes she should have expected that, coming into the spirit world, things were never going to go according to plan, but being tossed into the Fog of Lost Souls by a giant scorpion spider spirit is not exactly the relaxing break she want them to have.

"Well we can worry about that later," Asami insists. "I see something." She cranes her neck to get a look around the spirit. "It's bones. Korra, I see giant bones."

It is actually rock spreading up over the canyon on either side and curling into itself like a ribcage, but Korra decides that now is not the time to correct her. "Listen, Asami," she begins in a rushed whisper. "We're going to get thrown in the fog. I'm going to bend the air around us to create a shield, but I can't do that until my arms are free. If you get loose before I do, you need to stay close to me, okay? It's really important. Just keep you mind on something else for a couple of minutes."

"Okay," Asami sighs reluctantly.

They come to a stop near the edge of the canyon, and Korra buries her face in the side of Asami's neck as they sail through the air in a wide arc.

* * *

Despite the fact that the sun is setting, the light stings Kuvira's eyes when they bring her outside to the tribunal. They are in a courtyard that is lined with spectators, some of them members of the rebellion and others, ordinary villagers. Ling Dao sits at an elevated desk. There is a rickety, wooden chair on the ground beside it, and Kuvira knows that it is for her, to make her look as small as possible. But Kuvira is used to looking small.

"When is the last time she was chi blocked?" Ling Dao asks when she sees them approaching.

"Before we took her out of her cell, ma'am," Shou answers. Before Kuvira rejected Ling Dao's second offer, they only used the glove on her often enough to make certain she did not regain her bending. Now they seem to be using it more liberally. Kuvira's back aches from multiple electrical burns.

"She's a powerful bender," Ling Dao replies, her voice like silk. "Best do it again. Just to make sure. I wouldn't want to risk the safety of all of our spectators."

The familiar sensation of an abnormally heavy hand on her body—on her shoulder this time—and then her teeth chatter. Her muscles contract as electricity flows through her body like a river.

She does not remember hitting the ground, but the next thing she is aware of is Shou and a man dragging her across the courtyard and dropping her into the chair. On the other end of the courtyard, seven men and women sit at a long table. Ling Dao looms over her like a vulture. "Who is representing you, Kuvira?" she asks sharply.

It takes Kuvira a moment to recover the use of her tongue. "I don't…" she murmurs before gathering her strength and projecting it into her voice. "I will be representing myself."

"Very well," Ling Dao replies. She almost sounds bored. She jerks her head toward the people at the long table as she speaks again. "You may tell your side of the story to the council."

"What story?" Kuvira asks. She is still relatively unclear what behavior she is even being tried for. No one has bothered to speak to her since she was pulled away from her meeting with Ling Dao this afternoon.

The other woman looks at her like she has just admitted she cannot count to ten. "Your story…" she explains, her voice thick with forced patience, "about why you are refusing to help aid, and are in fact trying to undermine, our efforts against the tyrannical monarchy."

"The monarchy is not tyrannical," Kuvira insists. Already, she can hear a hushed murmur ripple through the crowd. "Yes, it wastyrannical under the Earth Queen, but Prince Wu has no intention of following in her footsteps. He plans to make each province independent and self-led. Omashu was like that once, and it can be again."

Of course, the last King of Omashu has been dead for a long time. Most of the spectators in the audience were probably not born yet when the Earth Queen marched her troops into the city before King Bumi's body had even cooled.

"The Prince's plan will help the people of the Earth Nation," she continues. "Each province's government will be specifically attuned to the issues most important to its constituents. Under independent rule, the Earth Nation can be stronger and more prosperous than ever before. Poverty in the countryside could be all but wiped out when the people in charge are more concerned with livestock trade than gold and luxury goods."

"Under the Idiot Prince's plan, the Earth Nation will be more divided than ever, is that not so?" Ling Dao asks. She directs her question not at Kuvira, but at the crowd surrounding the courtyard. It murmurs its assent.

"Well, yes, but—"

"Which will make it more difficult to coordinate militarily if we are attacked?"

"I guess so," Kuvira answers. "But we—"

"In fact," Ling Dao adds. "If we were to be attacked by, say, the United Republic, as we nearly were only weeks ago, we would be completely unable to defend ourselves."

"The United Republic only considered attacking the Earth Nation because I was approaching Republic City with an army," Kuvira argues. "They had no choice. They were defending themselves."

"Republic City is built on Earth Kingdom land," Ling Dao points out. "The Fire Nation was defeated, and still the colonists were allowed to stay, keep the houses and the riches they stole from Earth Kingdom citizens because King Kuei was too weak to hold his own against Fire Lord Zuko. The monarchy sold us out once, and now you want to let it sell us out again. You made us strong after the Queen was assassinated. We broke you out of custody. Why have you abandoned us?"

Kuvira shakes her head. "I haven't abandoned anyone. Your cause is wrong for the people of the Earth Kingdom. No person should ever hold that kind of power. We can't handle it. I couldn't."

"So you're weak," Ling Dao sneers, and Kuvira drops her eyes.

"Yes," she admits. "I became weak when I started allowing power to control me instead of the good of the Earth Nation. I invaded provinces needlessly. I risked innocent lives, both of my soldiers and of the citizens of Republic City, for land that we didn't need, just because I wanted to expand my empire. I was greedy, and I let the power control me. My loyalty was to myself."

"And what controls you now, Kuvira?" Ling Dao asks, and the prisoner can tell she is planning something, but she does not know what. "Hmm? Where does your loyalty lie now?"

"My loyalty lies with the people of the Earth Nation," Kuvira answers firmly. "I have only their best interests at heart."

"Are you _really_ loyal to the people of the Earth Nation?" Ling Dao replies. "Or are you loyal to Suyin Beifong? Are you thinking for yourself or are you allowing her to dictate what is best? Suyin Beifong refused to aid the people of the Earth Nation when we needed a leader, and now you are doing the same."

Kuvira scans the crowd, their frowns and their glares, and she knows that she has already lost. As if _Suyin Beifong_ is some sort of keyword that triggers hate. Ling Dao leans forward and asks her one final question. "Why have you betrayed us?"

Kuvira lifts her chin, though it hurts her back to do so. If she is going to go down, she is going to look strong doing it. "I may have betrayed your movement," she answers firmly. "But I have not betrayed the Earth Nation."

"I see," Ling Dao replies. "If that is how you feel, I will ask you to leave us now. The council will take your story and the opinions of our spectators into account. We will retrieve you when your verdict has been rendered."

With that, two hands seize Kuvira's upper arms and she is half walk, half dragged from the courtyard faster than her legs will carry her.

* * *

They land in the canyon with a thud. Stars burst in Korra's eyes as her head collides with the dirt. At least it is not stone, she thinks, blinking rapidly as tears threaten to escape. "Asami?" she calls to the girl beside her as she works against the webbing. "Are you okay?"

"Korra?" Asami answers weakly. "Ouch."

"I know," Korra replies. "Don't worry. I'll get us out of here. Just… remember who you are and where you are while I'm doing it."

"Doesn't sound too hard," Asami mutters. Korra continues to twist her body, feeling Asami struggle against their bonds as well. She can feel them loosening, but she cannot quite move her arms well enough to use them.

And then Asami frees herself.

"How did you do that?" Korra gasps, untangling her own body from the webbing and expecting another pair of hands to come to her aid, but they do not. "Asami?" Korra calls again, looking up, but there is no one there. She is alone.

"Great," Korra mutters. She wrestles herself out of the cocoon of web and jumps to her feet. Whirling her arms, she forms a dome of air around herself and sets off through the fog. There is a woman nearby muttering about a tiger shark. A man lurks just out of Korra's sight, but she can hear him shrieking. Minutes pass, and Korra hears nothing from Asami.

Slowly, she allows the shield of air around her to die down. Then, before the fog has time to seep its way into her mind, she rests her knuckles together and falls into the Avatar State. She throws her hands out to her sides, producing a blast of air powerful enough that the fog recedes nearly entirely out of the canyon. In the distance, close enough that, without the muffling fog between them, Korra can just hear the whisper of her voice, Asami wanders aimlessly. Korra runs toward her and seizes her hand just as the fog finds them again. She produces the sphere of air once more, this time with a grunt of effort as she maintains it with one hand.

She glances back at Asami. The engineer's eyes are blank, dead-looking. She shows no sign of even noticing Korra beside her. The Avatar sighs. "Come on, Asami," she mutters. "I'll get us out of here."

They are approaching the incline that will lead them to safety, sweat clinging to Korra's body, when she feels her fingers being squeezed. She glances back and Asami offers her a soft smile. Her eyes are sad, but at least the life is returning to them.

They climb out of the canyon and Korra finally drops her arm back to her side. Her muscles ache. Asami gazes out over the valley. "How many people are trapped in there, do you think?"

"I don't know," Korra answers. "Tenzin said it's a prison for humans. Apparently General Zhao is in there somewhere, still claiming to be the Moon Slayer."

Asami shivers, and Korra takes her hand again in a gesture she hopes is comforting. "Let's get out of here."

They walk in silence for a while, holding tightly to each other. Finally, at the base of a mountain that Korra hopes is Hai-Riyo Peak, or they are very lost, they decide to make camp.

"You're quiet," Korra comments are they drop their bags and sink into the grass on their backs. Asami sighs.

"I'm sorry I got lost," she replies. "I couldn't… I couldn't not think of my father."

"You don't have to apologize," Korra assures her. She scoots over in the grass until she is close enough to wrap her arms around her girlfriend. "I know what it's like to not be able to get a memory out of your head. Trust me. I spent years trying to do it."

Asami sinks gratefully into Korra's side. "I thought I was there again," she admits. "Watching him die. The last thing I said to him was _Dad, now_. I meant for him to eject both of us."

"He knew that," Korra answers. She toys with a lock of hair near the perimeter of Asami's face, wrapping it around her fingers. "He just wanted to make sure Kuvira was taken down and you didn't get hurt."

"I told him I never wanted to see him again," Asami continues. "What if I died thinking I still hated him?"

"You two were making up," Korra replies. "He knew you loved him. You just needed more time."

"Time that we didn't have," Asami mutters. "We take time for granted, you know. I thought I could take my time forgiving him, and maybe we could learn to be a family again. I just assumed he'd be there waiting when I was ready. If I'd known what was going to happen—"

"You would have jumped back into a relationship you weren't ready for," Korra interrupts. "You can't rush something like forgiveness just in case something happens to the other person in the meantime. It has to come naturally to be real. Do you think we'd be as close to Mako as we are today if we'd forgiven him right away? I think we'd still resent him deep down. And I bet you didn't immediately forgive me for kissing him while the two of you were still dating either. This is why it's better that we don't know when we're going."

Asami sighs. "I was back in the night my mother died too," she adds. Korra can feel the engineer shudder against her. "I can still smell charred flesh. I used to smell it all the time when I was younger, but it hasn't come back to me for a while."

"I'm sorry," Korra answers, rubbing up and down her girlfriend's arm and wishing she knew what else to say. It suddenly hits her that she did not say goodbye to her own parents before they left.

"It's funny," Asami continues. "When I was younger, I used to hear her voice all the time. If I was doing something I wasn't supposed to be doing, I would think about exactly how she'd reprimand me, or if I did really well on a test at school, I could imagine her telling me she was proud of me in the exact tone of voice she would have used. The older I got the less I could hear her until I couldn't at all anymore, but the older I got, the more I needed to know what she'd have to say. There have been so many times the past few years that I would have given up the entire company just to have one more conversation with her."

"Really?" Korra asks, her eyebrows raised. As long as Asami has owned Future Industries, it has meant the world to her. The last piece she has of a family that has long been torn apart.

Asami shrugs. "Well, maybe not the whole thing, but at least a part of it. Like when I found out my father was an equalist, or when Mako and I broke up, or when I realized I was starting to… really like you."

Korra gives her a squeeze. "I know it's not the same, but you can talk to my parents anytime you want. If you ever want…" she rubs the back of her neck with a free hand and hopes that she does not sound like she is rubbing in the fact that her family is very much alive, "a parent's point of view or something. I know they'll think of you like a daughter. My dad already loves you."

And then, before Korra even has time to flush in embarrassment, Asami is hovering over her, kissing her. It is emotional, wet with tears, but not at all unpleasant. Asami's hands are gliding over her face and neck, and then they are slipping down her body and under the hem of her shift, warm against Korra's sides. There is a part of her brain that is screaming too fast, but Korra pushes it aside as her hands linger at Asami's waist before moving beneath the fabric and up her back. Asami's skin is smooth and soft and Korra could run her hands across it forever.

Asami presses her into the ground aggressively, much more aggressively than Asami has ever handled her before, and a voice in the back of Korra's mind is still screaming that _something is wrong_ , but she ignores it. Asami's palms feel too wonderful against her ribs. She feels fingers tugging at her chest bindings. Her own hand finds the clasp of a bra, and for a moment she wonders if they are really going to keep going.

Then Asami's hands are retreating, slipping back down her stomach to her waist to work at the knot on her pelt instead, at the tie on the front of her pants.

"Asami wait," Korra croaks. The hands still at once, and her girlfriend looks up at her, eyes heavy with confusion and concern. "We can't do this," Korra chokes. "Not tonight. Not like this. I mean, look at you. You're crying."

Asami sits up. She stares at Korra for a moment dumbfounded, as if she did not notice the tears streaming down her own cheeks, and then she is sobbing, her shoulders heaving as she gasps for breath. She buries her face in her hands. "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize," Korra replies as she sits up. She reaches out and draws Asami to her. The thick fabric of her shirt quickly soaks through at the shoulder.

"I just didn't want to feel so alone anymore," Asami admits. "When I was in that fog today, reliving the days my parents died and the moment I realized my father was an equalist, it was the worst I've ever felt."

"I'm sorry," Korra tells her. There is really nothing else to say.

* * *

Kuvira is not in her cell for long before she is retrieved. An electric shock, now familiar, runs through her body, and then she is nearly dragged up the stairs by guards who are unwilling to wait for her legs to start working again.

The sky is dark when she arrives outside. The courtyard is lit by purple lanterns, King Bumi's signature color and probably all the resisters could find the in musty closets of the palace. It looks festive, almost like Kuvira is not about to be read a verdict for a charge of treason.

She is not lead back to the rickety wooden chair like she expects to be. Instead, the guards stop in the center of the courtyard in front of the council table and force her to her knees. In rags with messy hair, under the disapproving eyes of the people surrounding her, she feels like she is a child, back in Ba Sing Se, unable to understand why no one wants her.

"Kuvira," Ling Dao's voice comes from behind her. "You are here today contesting a charge of treason against the People's Resistance in the Earth Nation. Do you understand the charge against you?"

"Yes," Kuvira answers, lifting her chin in defiance.

"Do you still wish to contest those charges?"

She grits her teeth. "Yes."

"Very well," Ling Dao answers. Kuvira can hear something like disappointment in her voice. "Council members, how do you rule in this matter?"

The man at the center of the table, middle aged with a thick beard, clears his throat. "We find the accused guilty of the charge of treason."

Kuvira sighs. It does not come as a surprise really. Ling Dao would not have put on a showy trial, open to the public, if she was not positive she would get the result she wanted.

"The council has spoken," the woman behind her announces. "Kuvira, former Great Uniter of the Earth Empire, you have been found a traitor to the people of the Earth Nation. I want this trial to serve as proof that justice shows no bias. A person's power, connections, and prior heroics have no bearing on the actions that bring them before the People's Court, and every person, whether a florist or a butcher or a…" a pause, "former hero, will be tried and sentenced the same way. Therefore, I am bound to the penalty set forward for the charge of treason by the Council of the People's Resistance. Kuvira, for your betrayal of your people and your choice to undermine a movement in their best interests, you are sentenced to death by hanging at sunset in three days' time. You are dismissed to your cell. On my part, I will bestow upon you the comfort of your prior accommodations. I recommend you use your remaining time to reconcile yourself with the spirits. I wish you peace and tranquility in your last days."

Kuvira is gaping. For the first time since she was named captain of Zaofu's guard, she is not focused on projecting strength. She had been expecting imprisonment. A long imprisonment. She has been underestimating the resistance movement after all, underestimating their dedication. Still in shock, she allows herself to be lifted by the arms and dragged back into the dungeon, back to the cell that once reminded her of a hotel room. It seems like nothing other than a prison now.


End file.
